Tour of Philippines

Imagine India ruled over by Americans, with left hand drive vehicles, English songs everywhere, shorts & sleeveless from old girls to young women, tricycles/jeepneys instead of autos and that's Philippines for you. You feel home when you go to Philippines and we did feel it and enjoyed our time in Boracay and Manila.

After Australia trip within 2.5  months we planned and executed the Philippines trip with sujai, venki, muni, myself and one more new person from Chennai joined us and it was our Brilliant Boy "Vikram" with whom our trip was made even more fun with lot of enjoyable moments.

If you have a valid Singapore working visa then for entering Manila alone visa is not required. But for our brilliant boy it was tough time to get Philippines visa from India. He had to get bank statement, had to send documents to Delhi for approval, lot of funny things happened and he had to spend additional amount in order to get the visa.

Philippines trip was planned because of Chinese New Year eve which gave us four days of holiday. The itinerary is from Singapore to Manila to Boracay to Manila to Singapore. 4 days 4 flights, 2days in Boracay and 2 days in Manila, Manila to Boracay is by Domestic airlines called Zest Air and the remaining is by Tiger Airways. The entire trip was planned mainly because of Boracay; it is known for its beaches and is said to have one of the best beaches in the world. 

Few first timers happened in Philippines;  first time entered a country without visa, first time stayed in beach hut house, first time traveled by 3 modes of transport(air,land,water) in a day, first time tattooed my arm, first time wore a helmet and walked in the sea 10m deep, first time ate a grilled fish, first time did a cliff diving from a 5m diving board into the sea, first time saw a sea-lion show live, first time flight was delayed for 4 hours, first time saw ice hockey sport live,  first time went to a volcano mountain, first time went on a tour with Brilliant Boy.

 

We had flight at 1.30am(saturday) from Singapore to Manila, this time we went early to airport hoping to eat at anandha bhavan; pongal with vada. Met  Brilliant Boy vikram at Singapore airport around 11.45pm(friday), he came via malaysia to singapore. Got the boarding pass and went straight to anandha bhavan to get pongal vada at 12.15am, i think we would have been the only customers to eat pongal at midnight and guess what they thought and gave us double pongal for price of one.

Double pongal with Double vada!!!

Our flight deatils in row two...

After sumptuous food we headed for the gate, time very very early. As per plan we are supposed to reach Manila at 5.30am and board the domestic flight at 7.30am that reaches Kalibo at 8.30 am and reach boracay before 11am. The flight from Singapore took off as scheduled, we reached Manila as per schedule, seems the domestic airport is at a different place from international airport. We enquired a security guard at the airport on how to reach the domestic airport, the security guard handed over a map to us and asked TIPS from us, well we didnt expected that coming.

We took the internal shuttle and reached the manila domestic airport to find out that our flight was delayed by 4 hours and will start at 11.30 am due to operational issues, which is supposed to start at 7.30am. This change shattered our whole plan and we were strangled at the airport thinking what to do in the remaining four hours. We thought to go for city tour but we were tired, then our brilliant boy gave a brilliant idea to check-in a room for 4 hours and get freshened up.

Near the domestic airport; strangled!!!

Local tea shop...

It was indeed a good idea, we took rest and freshened up, had breakfast at Jollibee.

                                                                               We reached airport at 10.45 am and boarded the flight at 11.30am then the pilot started the engine for 10 mins and switched it off for 5 mins and then moved the flight for 1 metre and stopped for 15 mins; started, stopped, moved, this went on for an hour; errrrrrr. Finally the flight took off at 12.30pm, the total journey was only an hour. We slept during the journey, woke up to see that the flight landed on a farm land, for a moment we thought it was emergency landing our excitement ended when the pilot announced welcome to kalibo international airport. Kalibo airport is really located in a middle of farm field, you will notice that when you get out of the airport.

To reach Boracay from Kalibo it is a 2 hour land ride and then 5 min ferry ride. Near the airport we took the land transfer in a small van to Catlican, on the way took photo of some interesting things...

 

 

MBA school??? Really??? Zoom this picture to see

We just crossed an death procession!!!

90 degree flat...Knock out

open restroom...

Reached the catlican ferry terminal at 4.30pm and had to pay lot of fees at the terminal, environmental fee, terminal fee;  whatever fee they asked we just paid, lot of places they got lot of small amounts of money from all the tourist. After paying all the fees we took the ferry and reached Boracay in 5 mins.

Today is the first time i traveled in three ways of transport in a day. Within the island transportation is mainly by tri-cycle and it was different experience to ride in one. Our room is located at Station 3, we took a tri-cycle and reached Pito Huts; a short video of how the tricycle transportation.

Our hotel Pito huts is a beach hut house and it was really really good, our house is called KanaKey. One of my long time wish of staying in a beach hut house came true at boracay.

We were very very disappointed as one whole day was wasted in just waiting and traveling. Had food in a nearby restaurant and it was 6pm by then, went to room again and the started to take a walk along the beach at 7.30pm. On the way tattooed my arm with henna tatoo, sujai also joined me; yet again one of my long time dream came true.

We walked a long distance around the island and the atmosphere was entertaining with live music, lots of people everywhere. We sat in a live music club, had some food and drinks, enjoyed the music and the weather. Left the club at around 1.30am and quickly reached the hut house as we have helmet diving next morning.

10-Feb-2013; Woke up early went for a photo shoot of my tattooed arm after which got ready for the helmet dive, we didn't had any food but had juice and was waiting for Vargees; our guide for the helmet dive and Zorb ride. Vargees boarded us on to a boat for the helmet dive and the boat went to a station somewhere in the sea far from the shore where the diving team gave us instructions for the helmet dive. The water is 10m deep and very clear, the helmet is 45kg in weight and oxygen comes through the helmet which seals the whole of the diver's head from the water; you get clear view of the sea & the fishes.

The weight of the helmet above the water is 45kg but under the water it will be less; Archimedes principle. One by one we wore the helmet with the help of the assistants and went into the sea to the water bed. The view was amazing with lots of fishes surrounding us and reefs/corals everywhere. The best thing about helmet diving is you wont feel any constraint to breath under water(unlike scuba diving) and you can enjoy the  underwater world. After some time our brilliant boy forced us to dance in the water and here is the clipping of it.

After 20mins in the water we were pulled up by the assistant to the boat, there was a photographer who took photo of us and it was included in the package.

In another 10mins we were back to the shore and vargees welcomed us back. We asked vargees that we would like to go to another location called Airels point. Airels point is an isolated island far from boracay, where there are cliff diving boards to jump into the sea; eat, swim, rest and enjoy the location. Vargees took us to the company where they sell tickets for the airels point, the company operates only one boat to the island at 11am everyday and by the time we went there it was houseful. We were disappointed but vargees said never mind we will go in a small private boat.Vargees and his girlfriend collected money from us and went to buy fish/meat products for us to cook at the airels point. After an hour vargees returned with lots of food products to be cooked and some drinks.

We took a small boat and started to the airels point, after traveling some distance the sea was very very rough and there were huge waves enough to capsize our boat. Our boat captain was very experienced and cruised well against the waves. It was quite a experience, we have never seen such huge wave in middle of sea. After nearly 45mins we reached the airels point, me and sujai took the cliff jumping from 5m board first.

Sujai did a belly flop from 8m board which took lots of foreigners for a surprise, i did another jump from 5m board. Venki had an injured leg so he didnt jump, muni and vikram didnt know swimming so they too didnt jump.

While we were jumping food were prepared for us by the assistants, after the jumps we were tired and food was ready for us, we were tired mainly because we didn't had any food from the morning. After 2 jumps i felt my shoulder was aching badly so didn't do any more jumps and we went straight to have food. There was grilled fish, grilled chicken and grilled prawn and some rice. First time i had grilled fish and it was good, the chicken was modest and the prawn was good in taste. The view where we had food was naturally appealing, we also had mangoes for desserts.

After food we took rest for some time and it was around 4pm, time to leave. The airels point closes by 4.30pm and every one is supposed to leave before that and no one can enter or stay after that. We were back to the boat and while returning the driver didn't drive good he drove purposefully i such a way that every one in the boat gets fully drenched in sea water, the sea was rough with huge wave and the driver let us enjoy the heavy showers of sea waters. Lots of water entered the boat and even a fish came along to boat along with the water. At 5.30 pm we reached the shore welcomed by vargees again.

Our groupon package included zorb ride, for which we took an mini van and went to the place where giant balls filled with air was awaiting us. Our expectation was different and reality was far fetched from expectation. We thought that we will be made to roll from a hill like the one in jackie chan movies but reality was not even 100m of rolling. Anyways the more fun part was not you being inside the ball but you being outside and the ball rides over you, they call this zorb ball massage.

There was another group which went for the ride first, while our guys was on the pathway of the ball ready for massage. Face down and face up massage here's a short clip...

After massage they went for the ride, since i injured my arm i didnt go for the ride but was enjoying taking pictures and videos.

Look at bossu expression...

After the ride we went straight to our hotel, freshened up and went for purchasing at 8pm. This is our last night at boracay, we went around the shopping area and found most of them in the shops were singing happily. Around 9.30 pm we finished our shopping and went for a buffet dinner along the shore side. The main course of the buffet was not good but the desserts was good with different varieties.

Food at Philippines is not that good, no spice or no salt yet the dinner was good because of the location and atmosphere. We left the place and reached the hut house at 11pm. We slept early because our flight the next day is at 9.30am and it is at kalibo, from boracay to kalibo it takes at least 2.5 hours, which calculates down  to catch the first ferry at 6am in order to catch the flight. We booked a mini van at 4.30am so that we would be on time at kalibo airport.

One thing that i would say about Boracay is, its an outrageously gorgeous island which most people are not aware, definitely one of the best beaches in the world.

11 feb; 5am we took mini van to ferry terminal, 5.30am we took ferry to catlican, 6am we took bus to kalibo, 9am we took flight to Manila and reached around 10am.

Yet another day used 3 ways of transport in a day. After reaching manila, we went back to the same hotel where we stayed 2 days back. Today our tourist guide will pick us up from manila to a house near mount Pinatubo, where we have accommodation which is booked with the Mt. Pinatubo package. Now we have time till night, which we should spend on city tour. We have booked a room for this day in advance for which we have paid only the booking fee. We were in a total confusion state now, as few said go the hotel where we booked and take rest but its out of town and we cannot go city tour, few said go for city tour the whole day along with the bags to carry, few said take a room here and go for city tour but we have spend money for room in which we will stay only for 10 hours. Finally a option came which every one accepted, which was to eat first and decide. We went to jolly bee again and had breakfast there, after which we decided a place to go which was suggested by boosu; Manila ocean park. Took taxi and reached manila ocean park, where we took 3 pass package; oceanarium, sealion show and jelly show.

Fortunately this place had a baggage store room where we dumped our bags and started to oceanarium. There were lots of fishes and it was very different ones from what we saw at australia, the aquarium is also very big.

Spent around 1 hour at the aquarium after which the boys went to restroom which me and bossu cannot forget.

We then went to the jelly show, wow this place was amazing with lot of jelly fish varieties. It was very colorful with numerous color lighting which made the jelly fishes look colorful. They had an illusion room in which there were only around 10 cylindrical tanks but the illusion made it look like hundred tanks.

Jelly Paradise...

 

It was around 3pm and it was time for lunch, the same place had a restaurant forgot the name where the food was very good, i can say it was the best food we had at phillipines.

Jeepneys...

After lunch we passed a path where there was shops on both side which mainly had lady staff, as we passed the path the girls started giggling and started ragging us. 'Sir welcome sir', 'i love you', were some of the comments passed, they laughed giggled they were happy, we were happy that they were happy. Then we went to the sea lion show, first time i an seeing this kind of show and it was crafted well with fun and entertainment. The sea-lion did a lip lock with a girl from the audience which my camera captured.

After the show me and bossu was tired but other guys wanted to go for city tour, that is when we split. Guys went for city tour, me and bossu went to nearby mall of asia i think its definitely one of the big malls in asia; damn huge. We entered the mall with big bags, the security guard checked us and called a guy, who came with a dog to check our bags. It seemed its common to have guns in manila, there were sign boards with symbol of no guns and obviously the dog checked for bombs/guns. After go ahead from the dog we went straight to the baggage section and dropped our bags. I had a Philippine mobile number using which we communicated with our tour agent(for mount pinatubo) to pick us around 10pm today and we will let know of the pickup location. Its around 6pm when we went to the mall, bossu was out of money so went to a forex to exchange dollars for  local currency. Then we started roaming around the mall, i text the guide to pick us at mall of asia as early as possible. While we were roaming around the mall my phone battery was dead and we started searching for free charging points. We searched nearly 20 mins, with the help of guards we managed to find a shop where you pay and get the mobile charged. We were more concerned about charging as our agent has only this number to contact us and also our guys who went on city tour also has only this number to contact us, so at any cost we should get the mobile running. We charged our mobile and immediately call the guide and informed that we are in mall of asia and she needs to pick us at the mall.

When we called she said she will reach by 11pm, after which we immediately went to baggage room and got bossu mobile out and put the sim from my mobile to bossu mobile which has ample battery left. It was around 7.30 me and bossu was tired, so went to have something to eat. In all these mess we were roaming around the malls in and out, the guards were staring at us, it seemed like people of our race come very rarely to the mall or for that matter to manila. One of the security guard after searching our bags informed his co-guard that he saw the passport and we were Indians and smiled; we over heard that. We went to a shop and had juice, by the time the guys called us and we informed them we are in mall of asia and to find us near ice hockey field. Some time later bossu made this comment, "yov enna nu therla ore erichala iruku", i don't know what made him say that...

After food we went to the ice hockey field and there was a match going on, its first time i am watching ice hockey live; man you need lot of muscle to play this game. We were watching the game and the guys came at 8.15pm, immediately we asked sujai to call the guide. The guide said it will take around 11pm to reach mall due to traffic and asked us to come to a common place where she will reach in 1 hour time from now. We discussed within ourselves and decided that we will wait in the mall and she can pick up us at 11pm. We roamed around the mall, the guide called us at 9pm then we said we are staying in the mall. She said traffic is heavy and we can save time if we come to a common place, we asked back in how much time she will come to the common place she again said 1 hour, earlier when we called at 8.15 she said 1 hour. This created doubt in our mind, we checked with the security guards in how much time we can reach that common place, the time which guide said and the time which guard says is very contradictory. We again decided to stay in the mall itself and let the guide come and pick us. Then we called the guide and said we are not coming to the common place, but she really wanted us to come to the common place to save time. There was lot of argument between me and the guide, finally we came to a common consent that whatever amount the taxi driver asks she should pay for us to reach to the common place.

We really didn't feel safe as, we are new to the place, its night time and the common place that we are going to meet is out of town, we don't know the local language and english is not common, every time we called the guide she said she will reach the common place in 1 hour, whatever info that the guide gave us we validated with the guards and its contradictory, every where there are sign boards with no gun sign. All these made us feel uncomfortable but we said to ourselves we are a group of 5 guys and if any thing wrong happens we can manage. It was 10pm, 5 of us took a taxi to that common place and we reached there at 10.20pm. We waited at Starbucks ordered some coffee and cookies, in 10 minutes the guide came in her car and went straight to muni and shook his hand as if they have known each other for long time. Then she introduced herself after some arguments we started started in her car, then she said it is 2+ hour ride from there. Most of us were tired, muni boy and sujai slept in the car, in few minutes after the car started moving venki, bossu and myself spoke with the guide for some time enquiring about the plan for tomorrow.  Then we started exchanging our childhood stories, bossu and venki were the story tellers. It was laugh riot for 2 hours, lots of funny moments shared; jumping off from a bus onto a stacked banana stems was highlight of all. At 1.30am we reached the guest house where we stay for the night. That place is a village almost like a village in india; we did feel home.  Concrete road, one light per 100m, dark, cold ,so we took a walk. After few metres we heard a dog bark, we didn't care, two dogs started barking and in few mins lots of dogs joined. We know that its their territory, so we slowly moved back to the house. Next day we have to get ready by 7am, we went straight to bed with few jokes by bossu (idli thuni, munnal ku...)

I got up at 6.00 am and started the guys rolling, by 7 all of us were ready and breakfast was also ready. There was a old man, our guides father and guides 4year old daughter, both of them interacted well with us. Hanna(guide's daughter) became friends with venki immediately, we asked the old man to prepare country chicken soup for us for the evening.

The guide packed lunch for us, we started around 7.30am in her car and reached the checkpoint in 10 mins. After the check point the journey starts to mount pinatubo, everyone has to take a jeep and a local guide. We took a blue coloured jeep with a driver and a local guide, when the jeep started moving we realized that we forgot to take sujai's camera which was fully charged yesterday night, fortunately i had my nexus phone fully charged we used that to take pictures. The road was white, filled with volcano ashes which had erupted 100 years ago.

We traveled almost 45 mins in the jeep, the journey was really good lots of ups and downs, waters flowing along. When the jeep crossed  a creek, sujai lost his foot wear, sujai, our guide & muni ran towards the flowing water and brought back his foot wear; applause. I forgot to mention about our guide, he knows only the local language and we know only english. The only english word he know is "thank you sir", actions were the only way to communicate between us.

My shoulder was paining so, i was careful throughout the day, its 25th april as i am writing the blog and the pain still persists. I think around 9am we reached LIPIT station where the trekking starts.

Our guide carried the packed food for us and we started by foot. The trekking path is very different, white mud sand path, mountain covered with white mud, banana trees along along mountain, water flowing dont know from where it originates. Fortunately for us the climate was very good, it was cloudy, sun is not yet awake. We started walking, enjoying the scenic view and took photos using my mobile cam. As we were taking photos and walked, we missed the route in which others went and at one point me and venki landed on two roads, unknowingly believing our hunch we took the road not taken. We walked few metres and the road which we took had a big turn while we were about the take the turn we heard the clapping sound and it was our guide asking us to return. Hadn't the guide come at the right time we would have got lost and it would have been a thrilling day. We joined the pack, after sometime bossu started singing songs with pallavi, shruthi, kamala, vimala, well if you hear this song the first person to hit your mind will be bossu.

For all the chorus in a song we joined with bossu and sang along, slowly it turned out to be pattuku pattu, me and bossu in one team venki and muni boy in opposite team. Some part of the pattuku paatu for you(caution: voice might be annoying)...

The climate was very nice, location was awesome with songs it was rejuvenating. We reached a checkpoint where the signboard asked us to drink water.

We started again, walking, trekking, singing all the way to the final checkpoint where we took rest and had some snacks. From here is the difficult path to crater till now it was just straight slope.

The jeeps came till this location so that while return we need not walk 7km again. If we fail to reach the crater in less than 15 mins, the sign board said we would not be classified as youth category, with that as target we completed the journey in 13.5 mins.

The view of the crater was really one of its kind difficult to see anywhere(movies, pictures) unless you visit a similar place. We took lot of pictures, the climate was even better at the summit, most importantly the place was very very clean, you could hardly see a piece of waste. We had our lunch there, time was somewhere around 12.15pm.

We told our guide to prepare spicy food, she said she will put more chilli but when we ate we found that the food was sweetly prepared with 0% spiciness. There was rice and noddles, the noodles was good, we gave some food to our guide who accompanied us, mostly importantly carried our food. There was 2 dogs we also fed them with the sweet chicken. Around 1 pm we went down to the crater lake, seems the crater lake was closed in January due to a persons death. So we couldn't swim, spent around 10 mins there and started back.

1991 Vs 2013

During Explosion - 1991...

We started back to the final checkpoint from where we took the jeep back home, on the way the drivers stopped at a place where the native people stay. The road to their homes was 45° inclined slope for 100m and it was drizzling when we started to take the inclined path. Reaching the top we realized that their lives was a blessed curse, fortunately no technology unfortunately lacks basic facilities. For a moment i felt that i could stay there, away from all the commotions. We took photos with the native people and bought some mountain bananas from them.

Remember your childhood days... 

 On our way back to the jeep we saw two cool yo yo boys...

In around 30 minutes from there we reached the guest house covered in full dirt, our hairs turned white.

The house where we stayed

Took a long bath to get rid of the dirt. After we dressed up food was ready for us specially the country chicken soup. The food that the guide prepared was again with zero spiciness and tasteless but the soup that the old man prepared was outstanding and at some point we mixed soup with rice(like rasam rice) for us to digest the food. At 6pm we bid adieu to the old man and the guides daughter, but the daughter cried the hell out of her to join us in the ride to manila. I was very tired and slept for sometime but the guys started playing with the little girl, she was very fond of venki and asked venki to stay back :)

In the 2.5 hours ride we taught two humming to Hanna; kno kno no kno kno kno no kno( from shkalakka baby song) and la la la lah la la la lah(mgr song) every time we did the humming she said "yessapa" which means 1 more time in flilipino language. The little girl performed well with us, she even used her hand and imagined to play guitar.

8.30pm we reached manila and it was heavy traffic, the guide warned us that there are lot of robbers in the city. She helped us to find hotel for our stay for the night, she dropped us and we greeted goodbye to the guide and her cute little daughter. Our flight is at 6am in the morning so we asked the receptionist to give us wake up call at 4.30 am and also booked a taxi early morning. We kept our bags in the room and came down to have dinner, fortunately we found a restaurant where the food was good with some spiciness and salt. After food we walked along the streets where muni boy made friends with a local guy. We spent sometime and went back to the hotel to take rest as we had early morning flight.

13-feb; Reached early at the airport got our boarding pass, at the immigration they collected 300 peso from all the passengers i guess it was something like visa fee, reached singapore and went straight to office that marks the end of our tip.

Philippines trip was yet another wonderful trip for us with bossu, in short if you are a beach lover then boracay should definitely be in your bucket list...