Anyway, there was celebrating to be done regardless. Two of my mates were over and it was to be the last time I would see them as they were leaving Thailand soon so there was still cause to celebrate. Despite authorities cancelling the major festivities there were still fireworks to be seen from my balcony so all was not lost. We decided not to go out as we had planned to go to a major area and they seemed to be targets. Sure enough a bomb was found at our intended destination later that night. The now well-oiled system of get to the 7-11, stock up and party was underway. The fireworks were actually quite impressive and once we had seen them it really made it feel like New Year. (photos up later I'm afraid, am having severe problems getting my New Year pics out of my email and onto the blog right now, dunno y)
Other than that excitement I had a great time in the Philippines it is a beautiful country and the people are fabulous, however, it was a bit more dangerous than I anticipated. They search your bags before you get on the skytrain searching for bombs, indeed on our last day as we had just got off the skytrain and got to the hotel we switched on the news to find that a guy had just been caught there with dynamite in his bag, there is a security guard or two in every shop , they also search you before you go into a club. On the metro and skytrain women and men have seperate cars to ride in - never seen that before. More disturbingly was a guard post we drove past on a trip that was an "anti-hijacking checkpoint". Although, I am not really sure how that works
or how effective it could possibly be:guard: excuse me madam, I was just wondering if you had any plans to hijack someone today?
person: erm no, not at all.
guard: OK, carry on. Have a nice trip!
OR
Guard: excuse me, may I ask whether that ski mask you are wearing is purely a harmless accessory or are you planning to hijack someone?
person: Oh no, it is my latest facial accoutrement, it goes rather well with this massive gun I have, don't you think? It is part of my latest "war on terror" fashion phase, it's all the rage nowadays.
These were the main downsides and after a day or two you get used to it and it doesn't feel so weird. I am used to being harrassed in Asian countries. You have nowhere to hide, you are clearly a foreigner there is no escaping it so you are always a target. However, in the Philippines it was great that you could banter with people and if you just said no thank you politely 9 times out of 10 they would just say ok, Merry Christmas! which shocked me. It really left you with a good feeling.
We went to Manila, Tagaytay, Nasugbu and White beach on Mendora Island. We were in Manila
on Christmas day so it was pretty quiet, the lady at the guest house we were staying at said she loved Manila at this time because it was empty, it wasn't till we returned 5 days later that we understood what she meant! We bimbled about getting a feel for the place. We went to Rizal park the theoretical 'lungs of Manila' and realised that everyone else in Mania also thought that the best place to spend Christmas afternoon was in the park. I have never seen so many people in a park. Huge families gathered around, sat on a plastic mat, kids clearly playing with their xmas presents, walkie talkies, badminton sets, remote control cars. It was a really cool atmosphere.Not far from Rizal park is intramuros, the oldest part of the city. Unfortunately, a lot of it was bombed and few of the original, old buildings remain however it was still a pleasant walk. Pleasant if you managed to block out the sounds of fireworks going off. Filipinos seem to have a strange fascination with fireworks, they were going off everywhere. However, these were not pretty light-up-the-sky fireworks, these were make a big bang that sounds a lot like a gunshot and scares the hell out of you! This coupled with the odd street filled with bunches of kids hanging out, in full 'hip-hop' garb with crunk hits vol. 2 blasting out of every window gave it a certain ghetto quality. J and I wandered down one of these streets and I regretted it. Kids were blasting off these fireworks and throwing them down in front of us as we walked and even if you know the sound is coming it still makes you jump. There were a couple of nice churches to be
found and clearly this was an area of Manila they had tried to clean up a bit, but still there were some areas that felt dodgy. I have just never seen so many people, even in Seoul. It took ten minutes to get out of the tube station because of the queue of people waiting to go through the turnstiles. It was crazy. Leaving Manila was tough, making it out of the sky train station and to the bus station was a horrendous ordeal messing about, dodging people, everything looked the same, people were everywhere, finding the bus station took ages and yet it was not far. We were certainly glad to get out of Manila. Just getting out and seeing trees and space made you just breathe out a long, appreciative sigh and then we saw Tagaytay which was absolutely amazing. Now, let me get this right, takes some thinking, it is a prehistoric volcanic crater, inside this crater is a lake, in this lake is an active volcanic crater and of course this whole thing is on an island. It is huge and the view is amazing. We got dumped off on the side of the road opposite a viewpoint and off we went to take a good look. The viewpoints are surrounded with restaurants so we managed to have lunch overlooking the lake. You can take a boat and climb up the volcano however it has been quite active recently and we had been warned it wasn't a good idea so we only got to look, no touching.
My photos simply don't do it justice. It is really hard to convey the scale of this thing. We went to Nasugbu after this, which is an hours journey most of it is spent going around the lake! Speaking of Nasugbu, it wasn't really our destination. We wanted to go to Batangas so we could get a boat over to Puerto Galera. We asked about a bit and several people told us we were indeed standing at the right bus stop to catch a bus passing through heading to Batangas. After about an hour at said bus stop and having observed what felt like trillions of buses going past to places we had never heard of we started to wonder. We spent quite a bit of time looking for the places the buses and jeepneys were headed to on our map however they weren't even on there! We decided that seeing as Nasugbu was on our map that the next bus either going to Nasugbu or Batangas we would just hop on. So, we ended up in Nasugbu. We arrived around sunset and got to eh beach. A beautiful, elongated, black sand beach, it was such a wonderful sight until you looked down. Piles of rubbish everywhere. You just didn't really fancy doing the sunset, casual walk hand-in-hand along the beach because you wouldn't be able to enjoy it you would just be watching where you put your feet.
This made us more determined to get to Batangas. In fact, I feel that the only way you can travel around is by being determined otherwise you wouldn't get anywhere. It takes ages to travel quite short distances and the modes of transport can be quite interesting. After a filling Filipino breakfast - Garlic rice, fried egg and chicken tocino (yum, yum) we headed back to the bus station. After asking the bus station security guard, who was nonchalantly dangling a gun, how to get to Batangas he bundled us into a tricycle and set us off to the mini bus station. You may think I am making this up but a tricycle is indeed a mode of transport. Kind of like a
motorbike with a small, round side car. Now, J and I squeezing into this thing was quite a feat, but the most I saw on one was 7 people. Two parents, two kids in the side car, two people riding side saddle on the back of the motorbike and one kid sitting on the roof of the side car with a big grin on his face clearly feeling like the King of the world. We had to take one from White beach to Puerto Galera and back to get to the ATM when we finally got to the island and honestly, the island is also basically a volcano with beaches so the road was quite steep in places. It was the type of ride that you just laugh all the way through because it is so absurd. Seriously, at one point we were heading up such a steep hill that 5 metres from the top I swear we were about tot start rolling backwards. You know if you catch a pothole wrong just as you've gathered enough momentum to make it up the hill that you will never make it! Hilarious.We made it to Bantangas and got hearded off the minibus to the port and onto a boat to take us to the island about an hour away. This was the kind of journey that really made you think. It was on outboard boat (not that I totally know what that is) but basically it means you have wooden stabilisers on the side to keep you afloat!. The first but was smooth however the middle part in open water was quite rough. People were puking all around me and the boat was plunging precariously high and low on the waves the front frequently getting covered in water. The kind of trip that makes you mentally plan stuffing your passport in your bra and your wallet down your trousers and mentally taking note of the location of the life jackets so you can make it to safety with all necessary documents to allow you to continue your trip after a disaster. Of course, nothing happened, but we were ready.
White beach was amazing. We quickly found somewhere to stay, I threw on my bikini and we hit the beach. White beach was really beautiful, not too many people, the sea was a fabulous colour and more importantly the beach was clean. We also got to try lots of Filipino food. Those are the boats we travelled on by the way!
Strangely, we couldn't really do that in Manila as all the restaurants we found were mainly fast food joints. The food is great, mainly meat and rice oriented but tends to be slow-cooked in a really nice sauce. Of course, I threw myself at the seafood. That pretty much covers it. Ah yes, one more thing, the very essence of our travels. The Jeepney, as I said travelling in the Philippines is taken to a new level and nothing shows it more than the Jeepney. The colours and writing all over it make it even more interesting and is
testamant to the Filipino ingenuity and capacity to have a laugh no matter what. We never actually rode in one of these as they never seemed to be going anywhere we wanted and half the time by the time you realise where they are going they have sped past! Well, I am sure this gives you a good idea of our latest travels. you will probably be pleased to know that I shall not be heading anywhere exotic for a while now so you won't have to look at nauseating pics of the beach as you freeze your bums off. Happy New Year to you all and let me know what you got up to...
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