Thursday, January 17, 2008

Filipino times

Hi, this time we've both written bits so it may be a bit confusing.

We have been meaning to write something for ages, but have come up against a new hurdle in our quest to bring you interesting travel stories, loud shouting computer game obsessed young Filipino boys! every Internet place here is full all the time with kids playing this war game at full volume, slightly drowned out by loud music which they then try and shout encouragement over, it makes sitting writing anything a rather stressful activity! Jenni has just put in her ear plugs as we have given up trying to find a quieter one, so here goes with the beautiful sounds of war, shouting and Bon Jovi!

Getting to the Philippines was fun! It took us about 24hours to get to our hostel here from Taru and Ville's house in Malaysia. We had a few stressful "the last bus to the airport has already left" moments, and a lovely sleep outside the Manila domestic terminal from 5am till 2pm! But we got there eventually, and met the owner of our hostel (Harold's Mansion) at the airport in Dumaguete on Negros island, and he basically adopted us for the next week! Harold, us, and Hanna & Elin from Stockholm went on daytrips all over the place, and visited Harold's auntie (who served us lunch), his beach house, a 30m waterfall, and nearby Apo island (great snorkelling!). In the evenings we were taken to cool bars and clubs in Dumaguete and we saw local reggae bands and "normal" bands. We had a great time there, and the food and beer were also brilliant & cheap!

We then moved on to a quiet part of Negros called Sipalay which was basically 4 very basic beach side bungalow resorts - and not much else. But it had a 400m stretch of beach with fantastically clear warm water. The beach didn't have the "dazzlingly white sand" the Lonely Planet described, it was more of a browney grey, but I guess "dazzlingly browney grey sand" isn't going to entice too many people! But despite the colour of the sand the place had a really cool feel, very laid back and friendly and rustic. The only boats on the beach were traditional fishing boats with outriggers that the local families took out to fish each evening, or to take us out snorkelling etc. We went snorkelling on a wreck which was really cool, it was quite a big sunken ship with loads of beautiful fish and covered with corals. We had never seen a wreck before so it was great fun, and it was shallow enough that you didn't need scuba gear, 2-7m. It was great diving down and looking through the ship with the sunlight coming in through the holes and cracks in the hull and seeing all the fish living inside.

We had another lovely animal encounter in our bungalow in Sipalay. It had been a while since we shared our room with anything bigger than a cockroach, so we were delighted to see a huge 10cm diameter fat hairy spider staring down at us from the roof of our hut! We were very brave and just let it be and climbed into the cocoon-like safety of the mosquito net, and prayed it would go away. And it did until the evening, when he crawled out again just to scare us. We think the very big gecko that was also sharing our room might have eaten it, because by the third evening we didn't see the spider anymore, and the gecko was looking extra fat and happy.

The language here is very bizarre, it's a mix between English, Spanish, and the local dialects which differ from island to island. So we can often understand what the locals are saying to each other! And we feel the country has somehow a different feel to the other South East Asian places we've been to. It may be because it's Christian, or it may be the American influence. The locals call Dan Joe (a hangover from the GI Joe times) and they tend to be veeeery excited to see us walking down the streets, and often they really just want to have a chat with us and go out of their ways to help us. We had a very funny moment in Dumaguete when we went to the local fish market. The ladies there basically gathered around Dan to admire him and smile and giggle. We were with Harold and he translated to us that they wanted to know whether Dan was married, and were very disappointed to find out he was, but they still wanted to know whether they could be pen pals with him... Dan didn't know how to take all this attention from the circle of new admirers, but the rest of us were having a lot of fun!

So far we've really liked the Philippines, so much so that we've extended our visas so we can stay here for about 5 weeks instead of the 3 weeks as we initially had planned. We changed islands yesterday to go to the Ati-Atihan festival for the weekend, which is a huge fiesta, a bit like Rio Carnival. We think we have a room booked through a travel agent (most rooms have been booked for over a month now), but we haven't heard anything from her for a while, so we've decided to just turn up and hope for the best...

Sorry again that it's been so long since the last blog, we blame the local noisy kids and the very strong Red Horse beer which is ridiculously strong, and very cheap at just 50pence or 0.70cents for a huge litre bottle!

We'll let you know soon how the festival went!

Dan & Jenni

7 comments:

Nick and Ce said...

I just start thinking I'd like to come and join you when you tell us another scary spider story!! Wonderful photos from Malaysia - thanks for the reflections one! You both look so slender and happy, travelling is obviously suiting you! Love Mum xx

Anonymous said...

hi jenni
happy birthday, just read this and realised it was last week, so lots of birthday wishes from us, sorry its belated
but still full of big love
xxx sorrel and glyn

Anonymous said...

Hi Jenni,
Happy birthday! Sounds like you're still having an incredible time, I'm v jealous. Have a gorgeous birthday, hopefully not involving snakes or spiders of any kind.
Love Katy, Mark & logan xx

Anonymous said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jenni. Guess it's warmer where you are than our wet and chilly January! "Manners and Customs of Mankind" (in 1932) mentions a sacred albino python in a village near Manila. Google shows one that's now in Manila Zoo. Strange cream and beige colour, but a must if you get the chance.
Love from John & Barbara.

Anonymous said...

P.S. A very belated Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous 2008.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jenni,
we're even later to wish you a belated Happy Birthday than Sorrel was, but at least we know the date! Hope you had a good day.
Love Mark & Jean

Anonymous said...

Jenni - sheepishly wishing you a happy birthday - shockingly late, my apologies! Sounds like it was lovely anyway. Glad you're so well.

Kirsty x