i keep a diary

March 03, 2012

Philippines: Part One

Meredith's good friend from college, Aileen and her husband-to-be Ryan invited us to attend their wedding in the Philippines. We decided to fly out a week and-a-half early so we could do do some exploring on our own before heading out to meet them on Panglao Island!

Saturday, March 3rd

I woke up on the couch remember that I'd slept there so that we would definitely wake up on time to be able to catch our early morning flight, but with a glance at the clock I realized that I'd...
me
OVERSLEPT! We'd stayed up way too late at Siege's birthday party the previous evening. If you're going to miss an international flight, at least have a good reason!
asleep ˆ pillow ˆ surprise ˆ me
me, meredith
We called the airline and found out that there was another flight later that afternoon!
me ˆ meredith
Headed to JFK.
driving ˆ taxi
meredith
Getting our airport Chinese on.
airport ˆ food ˆ meredith
Got to the gate with plenty of time to spare.
airplane ˆ airport
Up.
flying ˆ wing
Bought this at the airport for the long flight. Not a huge Stones fan, but this was an amazing read! Life
book
Chasing the sunset.
flying ˆ sunset ˆ wing

Saturday, March 3rd

Fifteen hours later we landed in Manila, we cleared customs and took a taxi...
airport
amanda, meredith
...over to the hotel to meet up with Amanda! Amanda had been in Hong Kong and when she'd heard that we were going to be in the Philippines, we'd planned to meet up!
best ˆ hotel ˆ surprise ˆ travel buddies ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
amanda, me, meredith
Let's hear it for international buddies!
hotel ˆ amanda ˆ me ˆ meredith

Sunday, March 4th

meredith
We woke up the next morning...
hotel ˆ window ˆ meredith
...to a steamy hot Manila morning.
skyline
Our hotel was near the bay.
amanda, meredith
After a delicious breakfast downstairs...
breakfast ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
amanda, meredith
...we met up in Amanda's room to try to figure out where we should all travel to next! Amanda only had 4 days before she had to come back to Manila and head home, so we wanted to travel somewhere close enough where we'd still have time to have fun!
hotel ˆ laptop ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
amanda
We ended up deciding on Boracay! White sand beach, here we come!
hotel ˆ laptop ˆ amanda
After squaring that away, we decided to spend the day exploring Manila around our hotel. Manila is not a pedestrian-friendly city so his was advanced-level stuff! We walked down Roxas Blvd to...
crosswalk ˆ horse ˆ walking
...Rizal Park...
walking
...and then decided to check out Intramuros, the original citadel of Manila from when the city was under Spanish rule.
walking
No matter where you go, everyone's always picking on...
church
We walked over to the Pasig River...
river ˆ walking
meredith
...saw the old Spanish fort.
meredith
This wall is all that remains of the cell where Jose Rizal was held. He was a poet who called for peaceful reform to Spain's rule in the Philippines.
amanda, meredith
After a nap back at the hotel, we climbed through the fence so that we could walk along the beach...
beach ˆ walking ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
...and admire the sunset over the bay.
ocean ˆ sunset
After a hot and exhausting search for a vegetarian-friendly restaurant nearby to celebrate Meredith's 32nd birthday...
tree
amanda, meredith
...we opted for Shakey's Pizza!
fast food in foreign countries ˆ pizza ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
Hey, at least there wasn't meat in it!
fast food in foreign countries ˆ pizza
amanda, meredith
Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel for an early night jammy party.
bed ˆ best ˆ pajamas ˆ amanda ˆ meredith

Tuesday, March 6th

amanda, meredith
We woke up early and checked out!
hotel ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
Took a taxi cross-town through Manila's BONKERS morning traffic to a nearby....
amanda, meredith
...small airport. Where we waited...
airport ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
...for our plane to Boracay!
airplane
Flying out over Manila.
flying ˆ wing
Some kind of sea farming going on down below.
flying ˆ wing
We spotted Boracay from the air.
flying ˆ wing
There's no airport on Boracay, so you land at nearby Kalibo Aiport, take a bus over to the ferry terminal...
boat
...and get on a long skinny boat that looks like this!
boat
Shoving off.
Ten minutes later...
...you're on Boracay!
We didn't have a place to stay, so our first order of business was to head to the beach and look for a room!
amanda, meredith
Fun motorcycle sidecar taxi ride.
best ˆ taxi ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
We checked out a few places and then decided to get out of the sun and have something to eat first!
Big old salad for Meredith.
I got some sort of crazy (and delicious) open-face baked-bean & egg sandwich!
After eating, we found a great room steps from White Beach at the catchily-named Nigi Nigi Nu Noos E Nu Nu Noos!
We had cool duplex room with a balcony.
After getting all settled in we decided to check out...
...the absolutely stunning White Beach.
Later that evening, Mer and Amanda went out exploring. I stayed in the hotel AC and...
...re-read this book! So wonderful! The Power of Myth
book
amanda, me, meredith
Later that evening, we went out for a late night dinner on the strip.
best ˆ food ˆ amanda ˆ me ˆ meredith
On the walk home we met these really drunk English guys who had both gotten their hair braided and one of them got a henna Mike Tyson face-tattoo! Excellent!
strangers ˆ tattoo ˆ wtf

Wednesday, March 7th

We woke up super early Wednesday and spend some time exploring the beach before the sun got too hot.
beach
About a mile down the beach we ran into Willy's Rock!
meredith
Just a buncha rocks with a Virgin Mary statue and some impossible looking trees.
meredith
One of the better beach days I've had.
amanda, meredith
Meredith and Amanda out in the unreal, bath-warm water.
beach ˆ best ˆ swim ˆ amanda ˆ meredith
What a shithole!
beach ˆ best ˆ boat
Later that afternoon, we walked around the main drag and then decided on a Thai restaurant...
..that turned out to be solid!
food ˆ thai food
me
Spicy Thai food and girly drinks on white sand beaches are all things I like.
best ˆ girly drinks ˆ motorcycle ˆ me
Later that evening, we went back out on the beach to admire the changing sky.
amanda, me, meredith
Yay, travel buddies!
amanda ˆ me ˆ meredith
One of the prettiest sunsets I've ever seen!
beach ˆ best ˆ ocean ˆ sunset
After a nap and a shower, we decided to head out and check out the night life.
We ended up watching a awesome cover band do a bunch of 80s metal tunes.
So good.
After being treated to a serious rock show, we went and ate drunk friend food. Outside of the karaoke love ballads, most of other clubs seemed to feature a playlist solely comprised of LMFAOs Party Rocker Anthem on repeat.

Thursday, March 8th

Up bright and early and searching the beach for a place to eat!
We almost went to the OBAMA Grill...
...but decided to walk up the beach a bit towards Willy's Rock...
...where we found a place that had tropical smoothies...
...and BREAKFAST BURRITOS. Yum!
Another decent weather day.
I wanna hold your foot.
Lunch.
Sunset. Repeat!
Thursday was our last night in town together before we split up to head separate ways in the morning.
We tried checking out a few clubs & bars (all of them playing LMFAO all the time) and then eventually, we were lured by a spotlight shot through the night...
...lured back to the sweet, sweet sounds of long-haired Filipino men screaming hair metal ballads from twenty-plus years ago.
Ok, fine! But just a few drinks!
Late night smoothies and fried stuff.
Around 1am we decided to call it a night. Here's a pic from our walk home along the water's edge.

Thursday, March 8th

We had to be up the next morning super early in order to make it to our 7am flight. We said farewell to Amanda and caught our 5am taxi to kick off trip to tiny Malapascua Island!
Getting from place to place in the Philippines can sort of be crazy. We started out in Boracay. Then a ferry & bus combo to get to Kalibo Airport. Flew from Kalibo to Cebu City. Then took a taxi to the bus station.
While we were waiting to board the ferry, there was a brush fire in the hills in the distance that we watched grow larger and larger.
boat ˆ fire ˆ wtf
Full moon and the ferry.
boat ˆ ferry ˆ moon
We made it to the airport with enough spare time for me to eat this guy. Mmmm.
cinnamon rolls ˆ treats
Boarding our plane via the tarmac, 7am.
airplane ˆ clouds
A little over an hour later, we'd landed in Cebu.
airplane
We made our way over to the North Bus Terminal.
bus
And less than an hour later...
bus
...we'd started our 4-hour bus ride up to the very northern tip of the island.
bridge ˆ bus ˆ driving
The bus was crowded. There was room for Meredith and I to both sit,
bus ˆ driving
...but not together. That's ok, sometimes it's nice to...
bus ˆ driving ˆ roadtrip
me
...make a new travel buddy! Like this sleepy little abuela who spent most of the bus ride bouncing her tiny snoozing noggin against my shoulder. Haha. Adorable.
asleep ˆ best ˆ bus ˆ driving ˆ roadtrip ˆ strangers ˆ sunglasses ˆ travel buddies ˆ me
Palm oil.
driving ˆ palm tree
Two and a half hours into the trip, the bus made a stop and I picked up a bag of...
roadtrip
...DING DONG! Mmm, this was so good. I ate the whole thing. I also really enjoy the little elf on the packing. Look at him coyly ringing his little bell! "Ding-dong, you know you want it!" Lil' Fucker.
treats ˆ weird foreign food
me, meredith
As we got further north, the bus cleared out until we were the only people left on it.
bus ˆ roadtrip ˆ sunglasses ˆ me ˆ meredith
Daanbantayan, the end of the line.
This is what the ferry terminal to Malapascua Island looks like! We weren't in a big hurry, so we decided to hang out for a bit and see if any other people showed up who wanted to take a boat together.
boat ˆ ferry
Beer & soda bottles.
beer ˆ truck
Unloading luggage.
best ˆ bus ˆ portfolio
After waiting thirty minutes of no one else showing up, we decided to pay 1,000P (around $20 USD) for our very own ferry. The minute we'd paid for the ferry to go over, all of the locals who'd been hanging around waiting for the boat to leave piled onboard with us. Always great when you can drop a Jackson and feel like a baller.
boat ˆ ferry
Pushing off.
boat
meredith
Meredith, in her safari dress, sailing the blue Visayan Sea. (This is one of my favorite photos of Meredith.)
best ˆ boat ˆ pretty ˆ meredith
About 25 minutes later, we'd arrived at tiny Malapascua Island!
boat ˆ island
We found a hotel with a room we liked. After checking in, we had a pasta dinner downstairs, and then, exhausted from our long travel day, laid down for 6pm nap that lasted until the next morning!
beach ˆ hotel

Saturday, March 10th

meredith
Before passing out, we had managed to book a snorkeling tour with a local named Ricky who pulled his boat up on the beach right next to where we were finishing our breakfast!
boat ˆ island ˆ meredith
Pulling away from Malapascua. Picture perfect.
best ˆ boat ˆ island ˆ ocean
Ricky took us all around the island...
boat ˆ island ˆ ocean
...and anchored at a few choice spots to let us explore the reefs by snorkel.
island ˆ snorkel
Emerald-green lagoon.
island ˆ palm tree ˆ snorkel
On the other side of the sandbar, we stopped off to dive down and check out the Lighthouse Wreck, a Japanese World War II landing craft that was bombed and sunk just before landing with a large shipment of cement destined for a gun emplacement. The ship is down only about 15'. It was fun trying to hold my breath and dive down for a closer look.
island ˆ palm tree ˆ snorkel
Spent the afternoon relaxing on our room's awesome porch.
hotel
Our room.
bed ˆ hotel
me
We decided to go out and explore the island culinary offerings and ended up finding a pizza place.
food ˆ pizza ˆ me
meredith
About the best you can do as a vegetarian in the Philippines!
food ˆ pizza ˆ meredith
The walk back to our hotel along the beach was lit by moon and about half way home...
moon ˆ palm tree
meredith
...we ran into pack of beach puppies!
beach ˆ best ˆ puppy ˆ meredith
We stopped to love them (and Meredith took her sandals off so that they could chew on them a bit. Oooooh, bad one!).
beach ˆ bite ˆ cute ˆ puppy
We retired to our room and dreamt puppy-dreams under our babushka-dolphin swimming-in-the-clouds light-fixture.
dolphin ˆ lamp ˆ wtf

Sunday, March 11th

We woke up to steady rain early Sunday morning (which also meant we'd be staying for at least another day while we waited for our laundry to get done).
Leftover pizza breakfast on the porch!
We spent most of the day reading. Meredith had a French horror novel called...
meredith
...Psycho Killer! (Which isn't funny unless you hear it spoken in a French accent). .
book ˆ meredith
...and started reading this one. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel. I loved this book. It was the first of Murakami's books I read. Really haunted me and stuck with me. Not a fast or linear read, but I can't recommend it highly enough!
book
Around 2pm, the rain finally let up and we decided to set out on foot to explore the tiny island. Meredith dwarfed by the palms.
palm tree ˆ walking
Our Lady Virgin of the Homeless Church.
best ˆ church
I had an exotic French/Japanese fusion bagette for dinner.
flags ˆ food ˆ sandwich ˆ smoothie

Monday, March 12th

me
On Monday morning we checked out of our hotel and got ready for another long travel day to Alona Beach on Panglao Island, the site of Aileen and Ryan's wedding at the end of the week! Here's me with a Buddha on the beach.
best ˆ buddha ˆ sunglasses ˆ me
Saw this big, bright yellow spider making a web in the garden while we waited for our laundry to dry in the sun.
best ˆ spider
We caught the 1pm ferry back to the mainland...
...and this time we'd hired a private car to drive us the 4+ hours from Daanbantayan...
taxi
...all the way to...
bridge ˆ driving ˆ taxi
...down south to the ferry terminal.
ferry
Seven hours after leaving Malapascua, we'd made it to the ferry from Cebu City to Tagbilaran on Bohol Island.
boat ˆ ferry
me, meredith
After another TWO HOURS on the boat, we took a car from Tagbilaran to Alona Beach and finally arrive a little past 1:30am. Our taxi driver took us to a few different hotels trying to find vacancy without much luck. Then he looked us up and down and said, I know a place that probably has vacancy if you don't mind a place that's a little....different.
boat ˆ ferry ˆ hoodie ˆ me ˆ meredith
Which is how we ended up at the totally amazing REGGAE GUESTHOUSE!
reggae guesthouse ˆ sign
We were totally EXHAUSTED from our long travel day. Our taxi driver walked us over to a bunch of dreadlocked French guys getting shit-faced at the bar and introduced us to Bilbo, the hotel's then-proprietar (who, according to the website, seems to no-longer be the owner)...
hotel ˆ reggae guesthouse
...showed us to our room to see if it was to our liking. It certainly was!
bed ˆ hotel ˆ reggae guesthouse
Jah curtains.
curtain ˆ hotel ˆ reggae guesthouse ˆ window
Before heading to bed, we joined the crew at the bar for few nightcaps.
dog
And put our feet in this dog's mouth a lot!
bite ˆ dog ˆ feet ˆ reggae guesthouse

1 comment

  • tcf16june 6, 2014

    This is one my favorite IKAD entries! What a lovely trip. Although I'm sure all of the traveling was tiring and boring, the payoffs look worth it.