Here is the strip of grass we looked in..
And here they are..
The drive home took 2 hours due to traffic, but at least the trip was a success. Now we were ready for Thursday and the start of our vacation.
Thursday evening we headed down to Tokyo with Warren. We spent the night in Tokyo so that we could get to the airport early for Warren's flight out. Then we hung out at Narita waiting for ours to leave. We flew Philippine Airlines directly to Cebu.
Here are the Philippines in relation to Japan (from google maps)
Our hotel location within the Philippines.
And the aerial shot of the resort.
The resort was only about a 20 minute ride from the airport. When we arrived we were met by a guy with a sign. I think this was the first time I have ever had a guy with a sign meet me at the airport. We walked out of the airport and were greeted with nice muggy air. Coming off winter if felt pretty good to me. The guy that met us at the airport told us to exchange our money at a convenient store that he would take us to. He also told us we should stock up on supplies and water (Philippine water can give foreigners trouble.) We complied and changed our money and bought supplies from the store. Later we found out that the guy that picked us up got a cut of the exchange and our purchases as he had a relationship with the store owner. He didn't tell us that, but I found out from other means. At least his conversion rate was better than we would have gotten at the hotel. The drive to the hotel was in a van with blacked out windows. I will say that the ride in was pretty interesting. I will explain later with pictures. After check in we walked to the beach to scope things out. It looked pretty nice. I figured we could get some good relaxing in here..
The children found their first of what would turn in to many starfish.
Due to mental scaring from watching Jaws as a child (it really looked more realistic back then) Kate and I decided to wait to get in the water until daylight.
Here are pictures of our room in the daylight.
Now off to the beach. We spent time in the water and enjoyed the day. The sun in the Philippines is pretty strong. All 4 of us got at least some sunburn so after the first day we were much more careful with our sun exposure.
While enjoying the water we also found more aquatic life including this huge starfish. I am not so familiar with ocean life, so I don't know what bites and what doesn't. As a result I would only hold this starfish from the topside.
We all played in the sand on the beach, buried Colleen halfway in the sand and made castles during our stay at the beach.
Here is Colleen after we turned her into a mermaid.
And the children's sand castles.
When our Filipino neighbors from the US (Tita Jenny and Tito Junilu) found where we were going in the Philippines they gave us the number of a friends brother in law that lives in the area and drives a Jeepney. We called him and he was willing to show us around the area. On the second day he rented a van with air conditioning and drove to the hotel to meet us. His name was Memel. Actually he turned out to really be a blessing on our trip. From then on everyday but one he took us out for meals and other adventures. It was really nice to have someone that we could trust to show us around. First stop was Jolly B's for breakfast. Jolly B is a restaurant chain in the Philippines that competes with McDonalds (and wins I think). It is fast food and you can get rice with your burger in place of fries. I think because of Jolly B McDonalds offers rice as an option as well. I told Junilu if we ever made it to the Philippines we would eat at a Jolly B, so we had no choice.
Kate and I had the Palobok Fiesta with a Coke (and ice cubes, our first mistake) The Palobok had very fine clear pasta with a meaty sauce, shrimp, and eggs. Actually it was pretty good.
There are a number of interesting sights in the area. One location we stopped at was the monument for Lapu Lapu. He was the man that led that battle with Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Lapu Lapu won the battle and killed Magellan ending the first attempt at circumnavigating the globe by ship.
The Spaniards had superior weapons and armor, but made one fatal mistake. The bay the battle happened in had very clear water. The clear water made it appear artificially shallow. Lapu Lapu and his men hid in the water breathing through bamboo snorkels. When Magellan and his men jumped into the water with all their armor they were shocked to realize that it was not shallow at all. As they struggled to stay afloat Lapu Lapu and his men attacked and were able to defeat Magellan and his army. (This is the story as told by Memel) Judging by the water we encountered later I can completely understand how this could happen.
Next was off to the Taoist Temple. The temple was built in 1972 by Cebu's Chinese community. It had nice architecture and overlooked Cebu from a hillside.
Next off to Fort San Pedro. On the way we saw this sign. Unfortunately I never felt the hump..
Fort San Pedro was built in 1738 by Spanish conquistador, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to defend the port from Muslim raiders. (as told by Wikipedia). It is the smallest and oldest triangular fort in the country.
Many of the canons from the fort are still intact, although the wood bases have long since rotted away.
We also stopped in to SM mall to look around a little. I found this store to pose in front of. I think they are actually pedaling shoe repair.
To finish the day off we hit Jolly B one more time for dinner and then back to the hotel. We walked to the beach only to discover that the water was gone.
This gave us the chance to discover tons of new and different sea life.
In this picture you can see all of the starfish around the children.
Another big starfish.
Sea Urchin.
Sea Worm
I will call this one a Sea Blob.
Crab.
The children found shells, but many were already occupied.
And a school of mini fish.
So what is a Jeepney? and why was the ride in interesting? Well for the next day Memel offered to take us around in his Jeepney. A Jeepney is a Filipino vehicle that starts life as something else (Memel explained usually a Suzuki truck.) It is then converted into a multi passenger vehicle that is used somewhat like a taxi. The route they drive is pretty much fixed so you get on, pay and get off at your stop, maybe more similar to a train because the path is somewhat fixed. Here is a picture of Memel with his Jeepney.
Us in the back.
I have attached some images of other Jeepneys. They are all individual and typically pretty colorful.
Now to answer why the ride in, and around was interesting. This was our first trip to the Philippines so we really did not know what to expect. Along with all the beauty we saw, we also saw more extensive poverty than we had seen before. People are living in makeshift homes carrying babies with no clothing down the street. Because we were mostly moving in the Jeepney I was not able to get a lot of great pictures of everything around. I personally have never seen anything like it. It really makes me think that our needs verses wants are probably a little skewed. Many of these people were barely making it.
The Local Pizza Hut.
Here is a video when we were driving around.
When it rains the water pools in low areas.
I can say that from the situation many of the people live in comes a lot of creativity and resourcefulness. Of course I already explained a little about the Jeepney, but actually there are a number of vehicles that are adapted to suit other needs. Bicycles (mostly BMX) have side cars welded to them to convert them into people and supply transportation.
Family hauler.
Taxi service.
This guy sold bread from his bike.
Produce truck.
Motorcycles are not immune from the conversion. Many have a huge side car welded to them to convert them into taxis and trucks as well
If you look close you can see the driver is sleeping on the motorcycle.
I was also amazed at the different ways things were kept moving. We saw many shops working on the different vehicles to keep them going. I also saw a number of signs for vulcanization. Basically the vulcanizing shops were places to go to get flat tires fixed. The mechanic would pull the tube out of the tire. Then use a contraption made from a clamp and old piston to fix it. They build a fire inside the piston, I assume put some goo over the hole in the tube, and apply pressure to the tube long enough to seal the hole. This guy saw me taking the picture and decided to pose for me. We gave him the thumbs up as we went by.
On the third day Memel took us to A&R Seafood Haus.
We picked live Lapu Lapu (an aggressive fish) and crab from a tank and they prepared it for us. The Lapu Lapu was half sashimi and half steamed.
This is the Lapu Lapu trying to avoid capture.
We picked one of these crabs.
The finished product. All of the food we had was delicious. Everyone was able to find something they liked. Memel had sashimi with us. He had never had wasabi before. I told him it was spicy and he likes spicy food (hot spicy). He loaded his Lapu Lapu with wasabi and took a bite. I can't really describe his reaction, but he was caught off guard by the flavor and almost choked on it, we all got a good laugh out of it.
Our meal was tasty, but unfortunately it was our last real adventurous meal. I am not sure what finally got us, maybe the ice at Jolly B? but the next day both Kate and I had stomach cramps and liquid pooh, so we made a shift toward McDonalds from then on. As I said before McDonalds offers rice with the meals. They also deliver. Pretty crazy.
On our last full day, Memel was able to set us up with a pump boat owner to take us to a couple of other islands. The pump boats are also a Filipino creation. They are made with wood and bamboo and are powered by engines from used construction equipment.
We were first loaded into a small boat and taken out to the pump boat to start the journey. This is the view as we approached our vessel.
In the dock area the engines are not used. The boat is pushed by a huge bamboo pole.
Once out of the dock area a guy touches two wires together and the boats engine comes to life. As we motored across the ocean we had about 1/2 hour to think happy thoughts. I am kidding, but it does make you a little nervous to see the captain of the boat driving it from a rubber made chair that is bolted to the deck and painted white as you go out into the ocean.
A picture of everyone hanging out on the boat. The guy in the powder blue shirt is the captain.
Memel brought watermelon, rice, and fried chicken for everyone to eat. Kate said it was great, I opted not to eat it. She was basically recovered at this point, but I only had about 1/2 hour after eating before I had to use the restroom. See the box with the stick poking out at the back of the boat in the picture above? That is the toilet. You basically sit with your head out looking around while you go I decided that I really didn't want to experience that so I just drank water.
When we reached the Island the crew tied the ship to a buoy and said go ahead and get in the water. Kate and I looked at each other like "Here?" They went to the side and through bread in. Almost instantly a bunch of colorful fish came and started eating the bread. we decided to get the snorkel equipment and get in. We were all glad that we did. It was amazing to see all of the colorful fish. It really was like being in an aquarium. The bottom was covered with coral. The fish were bright blue, yellow, etc. It was a little eery to look out under the boat. They tied the boat up at a place that just dropped off into blackness. I saw shadows of huge fish swimming in the distance. Memel saw a shark, but I was not aware of it until I was already out of the water. Probably better that way as I don't think I would have stayed in the water long after knowing that. I did have images of a great white swimming out of the shadows running through my head as I looked into the blackness under the boat. The other side of the boat was bright and colorful clear water so we could see everything. We took pictures with a disposable underwater camera. I will have to post them later when we get them developed. Finally we stopped at another small island and walked around a little to explore.
As we walked onto the island we found what looked like a makeshift church.
It was very tropical on the island.
Colleen drug a palm branch the entire time we walked around. Don't ask me why...
After this island we made our way back to Mactan island, across the ocean again.
McDonalds one last time then the market for fresh mango, avocado, and cream for dinner. Back to the hotel and said our goodbyes to Memel. He really made a huge difference for our vacation, we would not have seen half of the things we did were it not for his efforts to take us around. The next day at 5:30 we were on our way to the airport to make our way home.
After arriving safely home in Japan, Kate had her birthday (May 2). On her birthday we spent the day at Amy and Todd's house having a cook out. We had shish kabobs.
Good company..
And of course cake..
Happy Birthday Kate....
1 comment:
Otherwise your re-entry visa would be permanently cancelled. Best Philippines Vacation Guide
Post a Comment