After some time touring South East Luzon, home to Bagasbas Beach, CWC and Mount Mayon we hopped a quick flight with Cebu Pacific and headed south to Cebu City.
Cebu is the major island hub of the Philippines main island group, the Visayas. The Visayas consist of countless little islands scattered all over the place. This is an island hoppers paradise! With over 7 thousand islands to choose from, if you are adventurous you can explore and discover all the infinite possibilities! We only had a chance to take in the surreal scenery of a few. The list including: Moalboal, Bohol, Siquijor, Malapascua and Bantayan.
Our first stop in the vibrant visaya region was in the lovely Moalboal. So, we landed in Cebu City, of course chowed down, then headed on to Moalboal. Many travelers(mostly divers) are attracted to Moalboal. It has a pristine Marine Park just offshore at Pescador Island and powder white, sandy beaches. This was a divers haven for sure! There were loads of dive shops, lining every street and every corner. Like all other travelers, we also were in Moalboal for some underwater exploration! I spent the next 3 days doing 5 dives in and around the area getting PADI certified with their Open Water Diving Certificate. I even had to STUDY one nigh! EKKK! Can you believe that! But, I did, and passed! And now I am an official Open Water Diver! Snazzy hey?!
On the way to becoming PADI certified!
Shaun also signed up for some diving, however he was feeling a cold come on and his sinuses became all bunged up.. he tried to dive but the pressure was too much for him and he had to sit it out the entire time! Oh my, was he sad. I felt awful for him. ( but we have more then made up for it now ) The diving itself was GREAT! The coral wall was unbelievable and cascaded down Pescador Island with florescent yellows, greens, pinks, orange.. you name it! Tropical fish everywhere, even sea turtles! There was always something new and interesting and unique to look at. I felt just like the Little Mermaid under the sea!
After my diving course was finished, we took a day trip on motor bike about 20km out of Moalboal to see the Kawasan falls. Beautiful bright blue waterfalls, perfect for an afternoon dip and lunch. We rode the country side all day, passing by local villages and seaside homes. Mostly every local who would see us passing would throw up an arm to wave and say HEY!
We stopped at a local village on the ride back to Moalboal, went down to a fisherman wharf and bought ourselves 1 kg fresh fish and some veggies to BBQ for dinner. We then made our way to White beach. We sat and watched the sun slowly sinking behind limestone cliffs, ordered 2 San Miguel Lights and enjoyed barbecuing our fish(with the help of an elderly filipino woman who seemed to feel sorry for us and the progress we were making with our fish! ha!).
Some of our adventures that day:
Afternoon at the falls
Mangos for lunch!
This basketball court was right outside our hotel in Moalboal. Every night local guys who worked in town would get together after work was over and have a game of B-ball!
And it was time to move on to beautiful Bohol..
There is just not enough time to tell you about Bohol!
Bohol is a southern island in the Visaya group and the 10th largest in the Philippines.
There is a rich history here with a famous church and a monument erected in remembrance to a to a bloody dispute between the Spanish conqueror Legaspi and a Boholano. Bohol is home to the famous Tarsier(smallest primates in the world) and the Chocolate Hills. We actually stayed on an Panglao Island, which is still considered 'Bohol' and is only a hop skip and a jump from the mainland and connected by bridge. Panglao is full of top end resorts, beach side bars and dive shops that crowd any possible space along the beach. The over development is loud and proud and makes Panglao one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Visaya region. So, with that being said.. it becomes painfully frustrating for us 'budget' travelers to find any accommodation within price range that isn't dirty and rock bottom. That isn't even to mention the price inflation on food. But, after a long morning of sweating and searching EVERYWHERE we found a perfect place for us. About 10 min off the beach, quite and away from the resort front, was an old Japanese place called Makato. Pool, Kitchen for our own cooking, our own fridge, friendly staff and a little grocery store literally 20 steps away from us with great valued prices. We were definitely happy here. We cooked our lunches and dinners and even did some improvising and came up with some dishes of our own!
We did two days of diving, the water and current was not dive friendly during this time so it was a little disappointing in comparison to the sights in Moalboal. But, it was good experience and gave us a chance to add some dives to the list. We did see a boat wreck though, which was really neat and we are really excited to see the real deal ship wrecks in the Palawan.
The one small piece of beach that we enjoyed and was not overrun by resorts was stunning. Some of the most beautiful sand and water yet! It is a shame to see the over development here and at the same time see such natural beauty.
Local Bakery for Breakfast
After the diving days we wanted to do a full day of touring the great attractions that Bohol boasts. We opted out for the package overpriced AC tour bus and again rented our own bike, got a map and headed out for some adventure of our own.
We visited the famous Chocolate Hills which are made up of about 1200 grassy hills aprx 30-50 meter high and during the dry season they turn dark brown and chocolate colored, resembling a Hershey's chocolate kiss, hence the name Chocolate Hills. We never really got a straight explanation as to why/how these Hershey kiss look alike hills originated. One explanation included: a legend about a giant who fell in love with a mortal and after her death he was horribly heartbroken and cried for days. His tears turned to hills and are proof of his grief that today we call The Chocolate hills... some story hey.. Whatever the real reason, these hills are extraordinary, nothing like we have ever seen. We got pretty carried away taking pictures of the hills, once we got our hands on some random props, we almost bust a gut laughing snapping funny pictures.
We left the hills and went the town of Loboc for a relaxing river cruse with buffet lunch and traditional Filipino dancing included. After stuffing our faces we went to the conservation center and home of the Tarsier. We were guided into a jungle area at the center and they pointed out about 6-7 of these little primates to us. They are the cutest little things you could ever imagine and get their name 'Tarsier' from their extremely long fingers and toes.
The Tarsier was the inspiration for the creation of both E.T and Yoda!
If you look close you can see the river boat in the background on the river.
Then there was Siquijor..
With Holy Week approaching, we had a critical travelers decision to make. We were torn between staying in Siquijor for their famous 'black magic Saturday' that was quickly approaching followed by Easter celebrations.. OR.. head to Malapasqcua & Bantayan Islands for a reinactment of The 14 Stations Of The Cross then a full blown night of Fiesta..decisions..decisions....
After a long time humming and hawing, we agreed Siquijor it is! We arrived in one piece after a looong tretrious ferry ride. The seas were so rocky that almost everyone aboard was heads down and turing yucky green. I mean it was so rocky, you literally could feel your stomach swishing back and forth with every shift in the boat. And you could definatly not walk unless you braced yourself against something and took inchworm steps.
We were glad to get off of there, almost convinced we really wouldn't!
We stayed in the amazing Kiwi Guest House, which was run by a Kiwi. This was our best accomidation thus far. It was a large nippa hut and a large wooden poarch that wrapped around it. It also had a wooden dining set on the poarch to enjoy our morning coffee. The hut was pearched on a small hill with an ocean view and a beautiful red flowered tree out front. I loved it. Tranquil. Relaxing. Homey and Cozy. Beautiful. We enjoyed our mornings on our porch drinking coffee and eating corn flakes and mangos. There were not many travelers on this little island so it really felt like we had the place to ourselves...
It was great. But, we still did not feel like this was where we really wanted to stay for our Filippino Holy Week expereince. With a lot of humming and hawing, we came to our final decision...were goin to Malapascua!!
We still had just one more day to enjoy Siquijor before fleeing off to the northen Cebu island of Malapascua. So this is what we did/discovered:
Siquijor is well known in the Philippines as the island of black magic. We heard from many that there are old witch doctors(or as they prefer: healers) that live way up in the mountains and if you pay them a visit they can cast all kinds of spells. (Even one on your worst enemy if you wish!) We heard that during holy week, especially on Saturday, the healers come down from the mountain and mix up potions and spells and do rituals to heal the sick and injured that come to see them. Since we would not be around for Black Saturday, and would not see the rituals to take place, we took it upon ourselves to head up to visit Mr. Juan Poonsay, the most famous healer in all of Siqujor. Which was quite the experience!
To make a long story short...
We hired a motor bike, drove up into the mountains and arrived in the small town of San Jose and asked around as to where we would be able to find Mr Poonsay. a young girl directed to an old house on the corner and told us we would find an old woman there who would be able to lead us to Juan Poonsay. Sure enough we found the little old lady who guided us down the street and up a long dirt path that bent left into the yard of Juan Poonsay.
On the way to see Juan Poonsay
This is the only photo we have of our "healing" experience.
This is the little old lady who led us up to Mr. Poonsay's house.
She took us right up to the front of his wooden house and called out to him. His daughter popped out of the house to greet the old lady and was surprised to see us. We explained to her that we were curious about Mr. Poonsay and would love to know if we could visit with him? She was very friendly and quick to invite us to sit on the porch. She then went into the house for quite some time and came back out to the poarch with her 98yr old father cruched on to her shoulder. She helped her brittle old father sit down for a visit with us. His toes were cripple and his toe nails were yellow, long and twisted like a witch. He was old, and did not understand english, hard of hearing and a very quiet man.
By this time most of the neighbors and family members had heard about our visit and had congragated around the poarch. There were long moments of awkquard slience and even more awkquard attempts to try to change it.
The daughter finally asked: What is wrong? Why are you here? What do you want to ask of my father? The both of us had no idea what to exepect from the experience let alone even planned what to ask! We were both too wrapped up in the thought of meeting a REAL witch doctor to even think of what we would ask?!! haha
So, on I went, struggling to find something to ask him with his entire family and neighborhood watching. It went something like this:
Me: uhhh..Thank you Mr Poonsay for visiting with us today.. ummmmm.. I would like to know if you would you be able to make sure I always have lots of love in my life??.....
His Daughter:(after a few moments of speaking filipino) nooooo?... my father can not do these things. Don't you need something fixed?
Me: (embarassed to shit) ohh of course. I am sorry. Do you think he could please fix my poor memory then?
Her, the Family & Neighbors: hehehe (speaking filipino)
Her: noooo.. my father does not fix things like this. You do not have something wrong with you??
Me: um! um! ummmm...(grasping at straws) my knees! (I think the whole family including Mr. Poonsay thought I was crazy by this time.) Can he please fix my knees??!
Her: Of course. He can do that.
Her and her father went on speaking to one another in Filipino, then she went into the house, came out with a wooden chair and an orange bed sheet. She asked me to sit on the chair and then lit incents and a pot of coals and put them underneath me. She rubbed oils on my knees and caccooned me tightly into the orange bed sheet. As the smell of the incents rose and the coals got hot underneath me Juan Poonsay closed his eyes and began to say something under his breath. He waved his arms around me and it was finished! I was Healed! Cured! My knees saved by the Witch Doctor!..well, we will see.
And, on to Shaun's turn..
This came a wee bit easier for him since he got to go second and already seen me struggle!
He sat down on the chair and asked for Mr Poonsay to please heal his eyes. They cloaked him in the orange bed sheet, lit the incents and placed the incents and the hot coals underneath him. They rubbed Shauns eyes and temples, Juan said his prayor and right away.. Shaun was also healed!
Quick update: Not sure about the knees so far, but Mr Poonsay has had no effects on Shaun's poor eyes.. I suggested maybe he should try the trick our Indian Yoga Guru told us: simply stand on your head for an hour each and every morning for one month. And THAT will heal them!
Later that day, we went on to visit some cascading waterfalls and did some cliff jumping with the locals. Ate at a local eatery for dinner, went to see some local sights and finished off by relaxing on our porch to watch the sunseting.
We passed by this group of locals lifting and moving a house!
Even while working so hard they still shouted out a HEY!!
So we just had to turn around for a photo
The best soup in the Philippines!
It was a bright and early morning (4am) to catch the ferry back to Cebu's mainland and a full day of busses and banka boats up to Malapascua. Our long journey was well worth it because
Malapascua was everything we hoped and more.
We arrived, and as per usual: went on a mad (sweaty) hunt for the cheapest AND cleanest place to stay. We found a steal of a deal(which was lucky because accomidations were filling fast!) in a backpackers haven called BB's. We snagged 1 of the 5 beautiful bungalow with a large patio for only $10 USD. There were tons other little rooms with loads of backpackers here. We made friends quickly with a group of Sweeds and a couple English bloaks. We all spent a night wasting away on our patio- chatting, exchanging travel stories, laughing, drinking beer, listining to music and playing cards.
Here is our home for the week: Bungalow E2
Some of Malapascua:
Malapascua's beach
Malapascua is a highly reputible place within the diving community. Divers travel from all over the planet to this prestine paradise of an island (included in the list of the top 50 places to dive in the world) just for the diving. Just off the Island, is phenamanomal coarl walls/reefs to explore, lots of exotic fish and sharks and even sea horses. Malapascua is home to Hammerhead Sharks, Thrasher Sharks and an abundance of enormous Manta Rays! A MUST see for all divers!
Island life:
Drying Octupous. You see the Filippino's drying all sorts of things to eat.
We booked a day of diving with a great company called Fun and Sun and were up well before the crack of dawn to have our chance as seeing some of these amazing creature.
Diving can be quite hard on the pocket book so unfortuantly we were only able to afford two dives, we decided on sighting the Thrasher Sharks in the morning and Manta Rays in the afternoon. We were unlucky with the Thrasher Sharks, every group on our boat that day saw them EXCEPT OURS! Can you believe it! The two of us must have looked like two kids who missed Christmas. We were so disappointed. But, we kept our heads up and hoped for better luck in the afternoon. Sure enough, a 7 meter Manta came from out of the blue, within arms lenght, circleing us for about 10 minutes before dissapearing again. It was unreal! So beautiful and powerful and graceful all at the same time. He seemed just as curious about us as we were of him. An unreal expereince.
The Manta Ray coming closer and closer and closer!
Shaun, Me, Nicole & Renee
And here are some other cool lookin creatures under the sea:
All smiles!! Right after the Manta dive.
We met a two great friends on our dives (both English, both traveling solo) named Nicole and Andy. We all hung out many of our mornings/nights over a bite to eat at the delicous Ging Gings Flower Garden and Restarunt. We later met an American named Matt and the 5 of us orginized a trip over to Bantayan Island together for the Friday/Saturday Easter festitives.
When Friday came we took our Bangka boat 2 hours across the sea from Malapascua to Bantayan. We had heard that the small town where the festivites were being held was home to 7 thousand people.. however, there was an estimate of 20 thousand people to be attending the weekend event! We even heard rumors circulating that Slip Knot and Limp Biscuit were preforming Friday evening! hahah! Can you imagine, Slip Knot playing.. sweating away in their leather masks.. head banging and screaming at the easter festival? We even met a Filippino guy who had also heard this and was so excited he traveled the two hour journey just as we did JUST to see Slip Knot. HAHA. So, we really really really did not know what to expect when we arrived on Bantayan. Flying by the seat of our pants on this one, none of us bothered to book accomidations. We just showed up and hoped for the best.
The minute we arrived, we were swarmed by Filippino's asking us where we plan to stay? If we want ride to another town for accomidation? Do we wanna camp on the beach? Where do we plan to go??! We wrestled our way though the crowed and walked the beach.
There were people everywhere! And sensory overload! Sights, sounds, scents and tastes!
There were floating bars set up, two huge stages, music, banners, balloons and floats all over the place, even a "tent city" and the smell of food food food!
After arriving at Bantayan Island. Shaun, Nicole, Andy, Matt
Walking the beach.
Tent City
We walked around for a while to just take it all in.
Thought about renting a tent..Thought about sleeping on the beach... Thought about maybe not sleeping at all...got distracted for a while by all the great smelling food stands..Then Andy got to chatting with a Filippino, willing to take us into her home for the night. We gladly accepted at the offer and we all walked to the house, dropped off our bags and had a nice chat with the family. (who were very excited to have all these forigners staying in their home) The family filled us in on where the reinactment of The 14 Stations Of The Cross was taking place and that they were to start within the next 10 minutes.
Our Easter was fantastic. Witnessing the Filippino's faith, tradition and devotion during their Good Friday celebration was humbling. It felt like a small piece of home to be able to take part in an Easter Celebrations. Also, having a chance to submerge ourselves in a full blown real Fiesta was something to remember.
Swim up Bar
Boys
Saturday morning was rough, to say the least. None one of the five of us slept a wink (along with anyone else on the island), we all danced until the sun came up and wore out the soles of our dancing shoes that night! When we were leaving the Island in the early afternoon, there weret tons of Filippino's passed out all over the beach, across tables, anywhere and everywhere others only half in in their tents, with arms or legs still hanging out. We boarded our Bangka and sailed our 2 hr journey back to Malapasqcua. Shaun and I were recovering for the next two days- lounging on the beach, drinking mango shakes and eating lots of tasty dishes at Ging Gings.
And just when you settle in, its time to move on all over again.
The Palawan was waiting for us. With World War 2 Japanese Ship Wreks to discover, untouched islets and beaches, snorkling, hidden lagoons, and limestone cliffs jetting out of the sea. Limestone so beautiful it is said to be second to none, even to Vietnam's Halong Bay or Krabi, Thailand.. We will just have to wait and see.
Thank you all for reading, we are doing our best to keep up and keep you posted. We love to hear your comments.
Take care.
Melissa
