Boracay, Philippines

Today is the last day of July and it's also one of those quiet reflective days for the both of us. It's our last full day in the Philippines - tomorrow is a travel day for us and by the evening we will be somewhere in the heart of Bangkok, haggling over the price of a taxi and a room for the night. The Philippines was one of the last places we planned on our route but I'm very glad we made the effort. The island of Boracay, about 40 minutes flight from Manila, is one of our favourite places for a number of reasons - cheap accommodation, English breakfasts, great diving and the rugby live on TV. Sara has also been working diligently on her tan and so far has managed to make some progress towards a light tan color on the back of her neck, right arm from the sleeve down and two halos on each thigh. The sunburn on the top of my head, courtesy of getting lost in the rice terraces two weeks ago, has all peeled away and I'm now the owner of a brand new scalp.

Relaxing on Boracay

The ten days we spent on the island was a time for us to recharge our batteries after seven weeks of intensive travel. Sara dived on the first day but decided against pursuing it any further. I dived on each of the following five days (sometimes twice a day) and also the last day. After gaining my Advanced Open Water Diver certificate I went out with my English instructor, Jerry, to dive a little deeper in search of reef sharks. Twice we tried the same area off the northern tip of the island but twice failed to see any sharks - although we did see Spanish Mackerel and Tuna, each over a metre long, which are less common than sharks in that area. The diving was wonderful and I can't wait to put in some more dives either in Thailand or Malaysia but I hope I can find an instructor as good as Jerry. Many times he had me in fits of laughter under the water while he imitated the Filipino Sex Bomb dancers from one of the tacky local game shows.

Jerry & I about to go on a dive - the one where I lost my wedding ring

There were two days where neither of us dived - we just sat on our hammock overlooking the ocean reading or doing laundry. Our bungalow was on the top floor of a small three-story building with commanding views over the south end of the beach and of the oncoming weather. It rained for at least 10 minutes every day. Some days it rained for an hour or more but that didn't matter. It was hot and the rain bought with it some relief from the heat, albeit brief. Most days we ate well. The rest of the time we ate too well - pineapple pancakes, mocha shakes, garlic rice and the breakfasts at Nigi Nigi Nu Noos let you order as many eggs as you wanted. A day can hardly start finer when you slowly lower five fried eggs into your stomach before strapping on a tank and heading underwater for an hour.

At Nigi Nigi Nu Noos

The beach at Boracay

And so today was a little flat for the both of us. We rose at 5am to shower and pack and retraced our steps, first to the boat dock at the south of the island, then to Caticlan on the bigger island of Panay, to Kalibo 90 minutes further south by bus and then back to Manila. We arrived back to clear skies and a cool sea breeze. An hour later it rained.

Manila to Boracay, Philippines

On Saturday our flight to the small town of Kalibo was cancelled due to bad weather so we were forced to spend another day in Manila, where the weather was also bad - typically tropical with heavy warm rain all day. Our flight yesterday was almost cancelled as well. We checked in, waited at the gate, boarded the plane, taxied out to the runway, waited forever and then the pilot said they had just closed the airport at our destination (Kalibo) so we taxied back to the gate but no-one got off. A few minutes later the pilot said we were waiting for the weather to improve, which it did, and then we finally took off about 90 minutes late. Once in Kalibo we got on a bus to the small town of Caticlan, then boarded a tiny boat to ferry us across to the Island of Boracay. It was great getting off about 10m from shore and wading in the rest of the way.

Boarding our flight to Kaliba from Manila

The Jeepney that took us to Caticlan

Now we're here, at last. Sara has already signed up for her dive class which started this morning and will probably go for at least 3 days, maybe 4. She's already read the first 2 chapters of the book (which is more than I read during my whole course) so now I have a few days to do some things on my own - maybe some sailing or canoeing. On the last day of Sara's course I will be joining her for one dive which will be my official refresher dive because it's been five years since I strapped on a tank. There is no-one else on the course with Sara, just her and the instructor - a guy called Jerry from Bristol in England. Sara is a bit nervous about it all but at least she won't have the pressure of trying to keep up with a large group of divers. After Sara has got her PADI Beginners Course, we'll take a few days to celebrate and then both do the advanced course together. In the advanced course we do 5 dives including - a navigational dive, a wreck dive, a night dive and a deep dive down past 40m.

The beach at Boracay

This morning we had a lovely breakfast in the sunshine, and now, one hour later, it's absolutely pouring outside and very windy. We were told that at this time of year we will probably get 5 bad days and 5 good days of weather so we just have to ride it out. I just hope when we come to leave that our flight will be okay otherwise we may be stuck in a nothing town like Kalibo where there is very little to do.

Boracay from the plane

Philippines - Manila & the North

We turned up in the Philippines on Election Day so it was a public holiday - many shops were closed but we managed to find a cheap pension to stay in which also had a hotpot restaurant below, where we had dinner. Within 6 hours of landing we had walked around the former Chinese settlement of Intramuros, the Manila Cathedral and the ruins of Fort Santiago, all in the heart of the city. Much of it has been destroyed, either by invaders or earthquakes during the last few hundred years, and rebuilt. As far as sights in Manila, that was all we wanted to see. There are loads of taxi-like vehicles called "Jeepneys" everywhere. They are much cheaper than taxis but I've yet to figure out exactly where they go. They are painted bright colours, with all sorts of horns, aerials, badges, air fresheners and every other tacky accessory you can think of. They seat 12 but you can get about 25 locals in quite comfortably.

Images from Intramuros the Manila Cathedral and the ruins of Fort Santiago

The morning after we arrived we booked our plane tickets to Boracay Island (for Saturday) and caught a bus to Baguio in Northern Luzon (7 hours away). Baguio is the gateway to the rice terraces in the north and our stay there was brief - only one night - first thing the following morning we were back on another bus, this time for 9 hours, heading further north to the town on Banaue, the heart of the terrace scenery. We found a ridiculously cheap lodge for less than $2 a night for the both of us, with superb views of the valley. Sitting on a bus for the best part of two days can be very tiring so that night the both of us slept for 12 hours.

The view from our lodge in Banaue

At the lodge we had been offered a tour of the surrounding terraces at a cost of 500 pesos for the both of us, including a guide. "You must take a guide sir, the path is very narrow and hard to find in places." we were told. "Nonsense" I said, "We'll do it on our own". I was very pleased with myself when I managed to arrange a tricycle ride to the lookout point and the start of the highly touted tour for only 70 pesos. I was even more pleased when we came across some of the traditional Ifugoa people and had my photo taken with them. And even 30 minutes into our walk I was still pleased with how thing were progressing but rice terraces can be very dangerous. At times we had to carefully negotiate narrow paths with delicate rice paddies on one side and 30 foot drops on the other. After about an hour we both began to regret not getting a guide because we were no longer sure if we were still on the correct path. We had both fallen on several occasions - Sara into a couple of rice paddies and I twice had the earth fall from beneath my feet while trying to steel my way around the edge of one of the embankments. In short, the path lasted about 500m and then quickly vanished. I'm not sure what the locals must have said to themselves when they saw two foreigners traipsing around their fields, in the hot sun, with no hats and not much water, trying to find a set of stairs leading either up or down. The 90 minute walk took us over 3 hours but we can honestly say that we have explored every avenue of the rice terraces at Banaue. The locals call them the eighth wonder of the world and I'm not inclined to argue.

A couple of Ifugoa people. So short, I had to squat down

The view from the top - choose your route carefully

Sara making her way down

Rest stop

One of the small huts dotted along the hillside

The view from the bottom

After a brief recovery period we boarded the worlds worst timed overnight bus - leaving Banaue at 5pm and pulling into some previously undisclosed location in Manila at 2am. Luckily the bus was virtually empty so we were able to stretch out and sleep. Once back in Manila we caught a taxi back to our old pension, but because they were full we ended up staying at the one next door. We have one night left here in Manila and at 9am tomorrow we fly south to the island of Boracay to spend 11 days on the beach.

The aftermath of a day in the sun with fair skin and no sun block