This post will be a big picture wrap-up of the entire trip. The first two weeks of the trip, which I wrote about in the previous posts, will only be covered briefly and through the pictures. I will write more about the last week of the trip at the end of the post, by the appropriate photos.
First of all, a map of the country, with all the places we've been to highlighted in red.
We start in Manila, as the trip did. Manila traffic (not too busy at this point). Notice all the jeepneys and tricycles - more about those later.
Believe it or not, this is a decent Manila neighborhood, full of typical little shops.
The city lies by the sea. Here's Manila bay at dusk.
The sunsets here are quite famous. In this case, the picture tells very little about what the place is really like. The water stinks really bad. The baywalk is swarmed with homeless people, begging children and annoying ice-cream men playing one particular stupid song over and over again. There is a main road just a few steps away, making this an extremely noisy place. Also, the great colors of the sun are caused by the huge smog levels.
Probably one of the oldest things in Manila - a wall of some barracks of a fortress that used to stand here. It's a nice place, probably the one peaceful and quiet one we found. Manila had a pretty large fortress and historical district - most of it was destroyed during heavy bombing at the end of World War 2.
The Philippines are the largest producer of coconuts in the world. Here's a coconut shop at the side of the road.
Taal lake. It used to be a crater of a volcano. This volcano is now dead, however, the island in the middle of the lake is also a volcano, one of the smallest yet most active in the world. The island has its own crater (lake), and there is another island in that lake. An island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island. Yet again, the ambience of this place is spoiled by the omnipresent tricycle drivers. "Hello sir, Hello ma'am!" "Where are you going??" "Take a tricycle, very cheap" "Would you like to hire a boat to the volcano?"
This tiny volcano can also be found in the middle of the lake. However, it is inactive now.
Moving on from the horrors of Manila and Luzon (the main island) to remote Palawan, straight to El Nido, which I've been praising around. The village is all crammed under these towering limestone cliffs.
A view from the El Nido shore. This is Cadlao island, the first island of the Bacuit archipelago. Also, this is where we went on the kayak...
.. to that private little beach, where we were surprised by the jungle man first and those rich people later.
A boat trip to an island slightly further away. Great snorkeling around these jagged rocks.
The Big lagoon, one of the better known places to visit in the area. The huts there in the middle are the location of the Swedish Survivor reality show, which I mentioned in one of the previous posts.
To me, this picture is an perfect desription of what El Nido is.
Despite being so remote, there are relatively many tourists. El Nido itself is a place that lives almost entirely off them - the accomodation, the restaurants, boat trips, bicycle rentals, scuba diving shops. Just few minutes away, this poor fishing village is more telling about what life here is really like.
The population of the country is very young, and there are lots of children everywhere. They are generally happy to meet foreigners. Some of them just because it's exotic. Others just try to beg for money of said foreigners. These boys were cool though.
Transportation intermezzo follows. This is the bus from El Nido to Puerto Princesa - with all the sacks of straw and people riding on the roof. No pig on our roof though.
A jeepney. The most common means of transportation in the country, as well as the coolest one. They run in the cities instead of typical public transportation, as well over long distances. Always very colorful, stylishly decorated, with blaring music coming out of the huge speakers. Sitting in the back seat, it is difficult to see outside from them, so sometimes getting off at the right place can be a problem. Still, probably THE main icon of the Philippines. Along with the roosters. I like jeepneys a lot better than I like roosters.
An amazing amount of people can fit inside. If that's not enough, no problem. Accept riding outside the vehicle as a legit possibility, and the capacity doubles.
Where there are no jeepneys, there are tricycles. The other most common means of transportation, especially in smaller cities. Usually operated by a motorcycle, but sometimes just by a bicycle. Good workout for the driver, as they can fit up to 4 people.
The Underground River parade in Puerto Princesa. The Philippinos take the New 7 wonders poll very seriously, with posters and instructions how to vote everywhere. The banner in the picture is not completely accurate, as the Underground river has not officially been voted to be one of the wonders yet. But I suppose with the devotion of the Philippinos, it is impossible to knock it out of the first place anyways.
Here's the entrance to the Underground river. It is a pretty long way there, first on a horrible road, then by boat, then a short walk through the jungle. At that point, one can hop on a small canoe operated by the cave guides and go right in. It's basically a long river inside a cave (8 km). It's definitely worth seeing, with the stalagmites, huge chambers and bats everywhere, though I am not ready to vote it as one of the 7 greatest natural wonders in the entire world.. I've seen places that left me more speechless than this one.
Took a nice jungle walk there, with monkeys jumping in the branches of the trees and all.
And also these monitor lizards crawling around. This one seems pretty tamed though. Not afraid of visitors, even begging for food actually, in a strange lizardy way.
Since I brought up the wildlife, there were some very cute puppies living in our cottage resort in El Nido:
The Philippino dogs love coconuts.
After a short stopover back in Manila, we set off for the last leg of the trip in and around Legazpi in the Bicol region in South-Eastern Luzon. Legazpi first got my attention because of the Mayon volcano, towering directly above the city and often called the most beautiful volcano in the world, with its perfectly symmetrical cone. We got a good view of Mayon from the plane, and also on the first day in Legazpi. Little did we know that this would be the only day we would see it - the mountain was obstructed by clouds all the other days.
For 4 days, I waited to get a view like this - but it never happened. Below is a wikipedia picture. The mountain is about 2460 meters tall. It is possible to climb up to about 2200 meters - going higher than that means being choked by the poisonous gases.
Mayon is also the most active volcano in the Philippines. The worst eruption took place in 1814, when an entire town with 1200 people was buried under the lava. What remains now of the town is only the ruins of the church at Cagsawa.
Other than that, Legazpi is a pretty boring town, especially when the weather is bad, as it was in our case. So we got to sit around cafes, eat the spicy delicacies of the local cuisine, the staple Philippino dessert halu-halo (below), drink the dangerously strong beer, play billiard...
One of the highlights of the trip was going to Donsol, about one hour away from Legazpi. Every spring, a population of whale sharks migrates to the coastal waters of Donsol. Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world, growing up to 12 or so meters. Despite the name and the size, they are entirely harmless and instead of human limbs, they feed on plankton. Donsol has a "Whale shark visitor center", where it is possible (for a hefty fee) to hire a boat and a crew trained in finding the fish, as well as some snorkeling equipment, and go swimming with these animals, in their natural habitat. We did just that. With one other Australian visitor and a couple local guides, we went out on the sea. When the crew spotted the shark, we jumped into water. There, out of the darkness, a huge mouth emerged, swimming right towards us. From what we were told, sometimes the sharks don't like to hang around people and dive deep into the see. Other times, they let people swim with them for a bit. The first time we jumped in the water, we only saw a large mass with white dots before us, which quickly disappeared. So it was back on the boat, looking for another shark. We indeed found one - apparently the biggest one around, about 10 meters. Jumped back in, this time got a good look at the shark, swimming just underneath the surface. It was swimming pretty slowly, so we could swim side by side with it, so close we could touch it. I've never been that close to anything that huge. This shark must have been in a really good mood, because we ended up staying in the water and swimming with it for more than one hour uninterupted - it actually seemed to be enjoying the company, almost poking its head into us several times, or slowing down when we stayed behind. Even the local experts were shocked that the shark stayed with us for such a long time. Ultimately, this was unforgetable, and one of the best traveling experiences I've ever had.
I'm waiting to get some underwater pictures by the Australian guy, will put them up here when they arrive.
We spent the last day before returning to Taiwan in Manila in the third largest mall in the world, complete with an ice-skating rink. I wonder if Philippines have a national ice-hockey team. Surprisingly, I didn't get lost at the mall.
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