Cuffe and Barr Adventures: Fun and adventures in the Philippines...

Susi sleeping on the floor
of the airport...

We were a little apprehensive about going to the Philippines given the devastation from the recent typhoon and all the media coverage. However, speaking to other travellers who had recently been it was a place that was not to be missed.

Our first planned destination was Boracay, a small Island in the Visaya’s to bring in the New Year, leaving Indonesia behind it meant getting on a number of modes of transport and took 48hrs from Gili Trawangan. This included a stop over in Manila Airport for about 10 hours. Terminal 4 is a bit of a shed so we went to the newly built Terminal 3 for a bit of sleep and our first Jollibee (MacDonald’s of the Philippines). We also had a night in Kalibo as we missed the last pump boat leaving from the mainland. The journey up through to Caticlan was quite picturesque and didn’t seem to have been effected by the Typhoon at all. After paying our Environmental Fee and the Port Fee’s (225 Pesos) it was a smooth transition onto the little pump boat across to beautiful Boracay. We arrived at our hotel for the next 6 nights and were both slightly disappointed by the standard in comparison to what we have been paying. We soon realised however that every man and his dog from all corners of the globe descended on Boracay for the New Year meaning it was ‘Super Peak Season’. After such a long arduous journey our first call was to replace our energy levels with some decent food and a sample of the local beer. So we sat down in a Mexican restaurant called Ole recommended to us by Rog Woodend (A good friend of the Barr’s) who had recently been there for Christmas. Cheers Rog, see you soon in Sydney. Boracay has a number of beaches around the island but the main two are white beach and bullabog beach.

Go Pro Perspective of white beach...

White beach is the picture postcard side with all the main resorts, sunbathers by day and sandcastles by night. Bullabog is on the east side and is the extreme sports area perfect conditions for kite surfing and wind surfing. We stayed at Dee Timmy’s right in the middle of white beach on station 2 which was a perfect location for seeing what the island had to offer.

Go Pro Hero?...

Fun in the water with the Go Pro...

Professional Skimboarder!!!...

After 4 months of spending so much time in the water, snorkeling, surfing and on boats we decided it was about time we invested in a Go Pro Camera. So for the next 6 days we spent a huge amount of time on the beach and in warm crystal clear waters playing with our new toy. We even had a go at something called Skimboarding with the locals. It is a bit like skateboarding only in very shallow water. The locals put us to shame however performing all the stunts and tricks. Very good fun but it proved we need to get fitter for Skiing in Japan. New Year on Boracay was amazing. White beach came alive with offers of party’s, sunset cruises, buy one get one free cocktails and all you can eat buffets to help celebrate the new year.

New year celebrations...

Sea Sand and Fireworks with a little shower...

The main resorts along the beach also had huge firework displays set up on little platforms and boats out in the sea. We however opted for a curry in our favorite place Bom Bom Bar and then we had a carry out on the beach next to the free parties. We even found a half decent bottle of champagne to pop at midnight. Cheapskates as ever!!! As it came closer to midnight the first of the fireworks displays went off, it was pretty spectacular on its own. Then the rest of the resorts joined in one after another and lasted for about an hour. It was definitely a New Year to remember. We did a lot of walking up and down the beach and across to bullabog and had a few final days doing nothing at all. We managed, even with a lack of decent Wi-Fi to get a couple of hours of planning in for the rest of the Philippines. It was time to leave beautiful Boracay and it's amazing sunsets and head for a little more adventure.

Susi chilling on deck, wrapped up fleece and all...

Bunk room on the ferry...

Next stop was Legaspi in the Bicol region of south Luzon. We got up at 4:30am to set of on our long journey. We had booked a ferry from Caticlan up to to Batangas Harbor near Manila. This took around 10 hours on a ferry pretty similar to P&O ferrys. Somehow they had managed to squeeze thousands of bunk beds into the place cabins should have been!!! We spent most of our time up on deck sunbathing, sleeping and enjoying the scenery.

After the delay we arrived in Batangas for around 8pm in the dark with not a clue on how to get to our destination Legaspi. Somehow we managed to get on a bus to be driven to another bus terminal we had never heard of, to then get on another bus which was an overnight one heading the way we just came from!!!. Somehow though we woke up in the morning with the sight of Mt Mayon (the Philippines biggest and most active Volcano puffing away) out of the bus window. We had miraculously arrived where we wanted to be. After a bit of free Wi-Fi on the bus we eventually published our Christmas Blog (hope you enjoyed it) and did a bit of research on places to stay and found a place called Mayon Backpackers. We arrived in the main bus Terminal in Legaspi and hopped onto the local mode of transport ‘The Jeepney’ with all the locals up to the top of town near the cathedral.

The Jeepney...

With not a tourist in sight we walked the back streets till we found our place with lots of help from the smiling and friendly locals. Mayon Backpackers is a really new, low cost and extremely clean place to stay before you head to Donsol. It was also our first experience in a dorm on this trip as the only double room was taken on the first night. However we had the dorm to ourselves and eventually the whole hostel which was lovely being on our own again after busy Boracay. The hostel also has free bread, fruit and tea and coffee and a fantastic roof terrace to look over the Volcano on swinging hammocks. We ended staying a couple of nights to recover from the Filipino cold before braving the water again in Donsol. Legaspi is cute with lots of malls, a ridiculous amount of Dunkin Donut outlets and one particularly nice restaurant called ‘Café Smalltalk’. As Susi had lost her flip-flops dancing on the beach in Boracay and Lees toothpick repair of the flip-flops failed it was time for new purchase.

We wandered down to the harbor and the malls in the centre for a bit of retail therapy and picked up something to help with the cold. We said goodbye to the owners of the hostel who asked us for a quick photo for their wall. Yet another mugshot left on the backpacker trail!

Fun on the trike to donsol...

We met a Finnish guy Anty who was also going to Donsol so we headed of to the bus terminal for a short trip in a minivan. We were left off by the bus in the main town about 3km from the Whale shark tourist office and all the main touristy resorts. With help from the really nice and friendly locals we all piled onto a little trike rucksacks and all and got dropped off at the place next door to the center. Dancalan resort is a perfect location, right on the beach in your own little cottages and has a fantastic restaurant with decent prices. We dumped our bags and went next door to register for the ‘Whale shark interaction experience’ the next day. Still not feeling 100% we had a nice spicy bite to eat and an early night for a 6am start the next morning.

Our spotter working his magic...

Sighting of the Whale sharks in not guaranteed so we were told by our B.I.O. (Buntanding Interaction Officer, Butanding is the Filipino for Whale shark). We were put onto a boat of 6 all super exited about the prospect of swimming with the largest fish in the world. The trip lasts for 3 hours in total and 2 hour in there seemed to be no hope. We had resigned ourselves to sunbathing on deck and not paying attention until ‘our spotters’ worked their magic. There were 8 other boats out and our boat was the first to spot them. We quickly rushed to get our gear on, switched on the Go Pro and lined up on the side of the boat ready to go on our B.I.O’s command. (Shitting ourselves!!!)

The next thing we knew we were all in and the B.I.O was guiding the way in murky waters. We couldn’t see a thing then all of sudden this massive bus sized shark (10-12m long) appeared in front of us. We followed it for as long as we could before it went to deep again. What an amazing sight it was, we all came back up with huge cheesy grins on our faces and Susi was speechless again!!! (that’s twice now). After a few minutes we got back on the boat and got ready for the next appearance of our giant fishy friends. Our spotters worked their magic again but this time we were joined by another 5 boats fighting to get a glimpse.

We were first off the mark and jumped in the water again to swim above the shark. We followed her for ages before she went down into the depths again. We had to give the other boats a chance so we ended our trip on a high. We arrived back about midday and had our brunch then had a well-deserved kip on the afternoon. We exchanged stories, pictures and videos that night over a few beers whilst watching another spectacular sunset. Yet again we realise just how lucky we are.

A very pleased boat load of people...

The only other thing to do in Donsol apart from chill out by the beach is to take a trip to see the fireflies. It is a pretty relaxing experience and is cheap too at only 1250peso's for a boat that takes up to 5 people. You all pile in the boat and head up the river to specific trees were the guide educates you all about the flies. We sat and watched hundreds if not thousands of them them dance around for about an hour occasionally moving to another tree. It was a really nice and chilled out experience and a nice way to finish off the visit to Donsol.