The Philippines was absolutely amazing. I still can't get over it. It was so hard to go back to work the first week after break. Now I have been so wrapped up in the crazy busyness that is going on at work that I haven't had time to think about how awesome the Philippines was. I would definitely like to go back there and explore a few more of the over 7,000 islands.
I traveled there with eight of my coworkers. Our flight was early on Saturday morning (which was Christmas eve), which meant that we had to head to the airport Friday night and spend the night in the airport. We played cards and other games, trying to entertain ourselves because there weren't any good places to sleep. Eventually we all fell asleep on hard wooden benches, and it was freezing. I like to think of it as it made us appreciate the hot, humid air of the Philippines so much more after being frozen for a night. So we had a flight to Manila, a few hour layover, a flight to Cebu, a long wait, and then over an hour long ferry to Bohol.
Waiting for the ferry to Bohol, sweating and wanting to put shorts on!
We took a large van(which I thought was kinda sketchy) to our first hostel place, and told the driver that we were hungry and wanted to stop for dinner before our hostel. He drove us through town and pulled up in front of...McDonald's! He jumped out right away and came around to open the side door, and all of us were like, err...we were thinking of getting some filipino food?? I guess he just assumed since we were Americans that we would want McDonald's haha. So he took us to a filipino fast food place that was super cheap, like about $1 for a meal. We finally made it to our first hostel, Nipa Hut Village, after over 24 hours of travelling.
On Sunday (Christmas day), our van driver Gerry from the night before told us to call him and he could drive us around. While we were waiting for him to come, we walked along the little dirt road along the river by our hostel. Almost every family seemed to be roasting/burning a pig on the road (for Christmas dinner I assume). I was hoping we would be invited for a Christmas dinner, but no such luck.
Christmas dinner pig burning
Gerry picked us up and took us to the zipline. It was under ten dollars to take two ziplines (there and back) so it was a deal! The zipline went over a river gorge, and it was so exhilarating. It was the first time I had ever ziplined, and it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. We were really high up, so that was the scary part but it was so beautiful looking down at the river.
Looking down at the river below from the zipline-photo courtesy of Meghan, since I was too scared to bring my camera
Next we went to go see the Tarsiers, which are the world's smallest primates. They are also endangered, and only found on Bohol island and one part of Indonesia. The place we went to had a section of the forest all netted off, so the Tarsiers could be "free" to move about that area. They are nocturnal animals, so most of them were sleeping. Our tour guide also told us that Tarsiers are suicidal by nature if they get too stressed, and they will bash their heads against a tree. They get stressed by lots of tourists using their flash or trying to wake them up. Right after she told us that, we looked back and saw a few Korean tourists from our tour group shaking a tree with a sleeping Tarsier on it. Our tour guide yelled "No" in Korean, and then muttered, "Ugh Koreans..." while shaking her head. I guess Koreans are known to be rude tourists and only care about getting the picture.
Cute little Tarsier!
Our next stop was the Chocolate Hills, which is an area with over 1000 of these hills that nobody really knows exactly how they were formed. I guess at the end of the dry season the grass turns brown so it looks like chocolate.
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| Hanging out at the hut |
After the hills we went on a river boat buffet cruise down the Loboc River, which is the river our hostel was on. After heading back to our hostel to hang out, we decided to go swimming in the river! We found a bamboo raft and took it up the river a bit. I was scared of what was in the river because you couldn't see anything in it (it was a cloudy greenish color) but nothing grabbed onto my feet or bit off my leg.
The next day, Monday, we headed off towards Camiguin island. We got up at 5am and had Gerry pick us up to take us to Jagna port. When we got there we found out the ticket booth didn't open until 9am, and it was pouring rain out. So we hung out and read books all morning and got on the ferry at 11. That was the worst boat ride of my life! The waves were so huge right away (from the storm) that the crew came around handing out plastic bags for puke. I got really motion sick from it feeling like we were on a never ending roller coaster. People were starting to throw up, and I knew I needed to lay down so I went to the dirty staircase and laid down and fell asleep. One of the crew woke me up about a half an hour later and told me to go back to my seat, but luckily I felt well enough to make it the rest of the way. I was definitely feeling like I was done with traveling for a while after that one!
When we got to Camiguin, it was dark and raining. We took a van and told them we wanted to go to a place called the treehouse, and the driver ended up taking us to a different treehouse that ended up to be the coolest place I have ever seen or stayed in! It was a few different levels with a room or two on each, all built around this huge tree. It was run by volunteer artists, and there was art everywhere.
This blog has gone on longer than I thought and I have to go to bed soon, so I guess I'll have to finish the other part of the trip tomorrow (hopefully!). To be continued...
Treehouse
