December 1st 2016 – February 9th 2017 (9 week stay)

What I need to inform readers about the Philippines is that in and around the busy city centre such as Manila, Makati, Quezon City travellers need to take extra caution of valuables that they maybe travelling with outside during day or night, such as luggage, backpacks, camera, cell phones, and this cautionary note is what I have been told over and over by the local Philippinos.
When or if you get to the Palawan Islands or other islands being much safer, one can relax walking around with camera compared to busy downtown city centres as mentioned.

Getting a visa to extend stay in Philippines, I made the mistake of going to a branch immigration office in Makati, instead of going to the main immigration office in Manila and paid much, much more for visa by doing so, close to 10 X as much I’ve been told by one local lady who appears to have much experience with such offices.

The other thing with the Philippines is that it consists of something like 7,107 islands, and the very popular tourist spot called the Palawan Islands consists of about 1,100 islands, so consider this in your travelling budget, because the Philippines may not be as cheap to visit as many think when you start island hopping, either you pay for the cheaper boat rides which will take some time getting to where you are going, or the more expensive plane prices, and these add up to a significant amount. Island hopping is inevitable if you wish to explore the Phillippines or just stay in Manila I suppose and not experience the beauty of the Philippines. Also it seems many tourists and travellers like to come to Philippines during high season when the plane fares and accomodations cost more, compared to low season when prices for these are also lower, thus a better deal and much savings, something to think about.

Lastly, you will have money stolen, this is not a just in the Philippines but most developing countries where poverty is high, on one hand you cannot blame the locals that are selling you something or providing service, but then again it does not make good business either. For example, a local takes a 8 km tricycle ride for a cost of 10 pesos, a ‘white guy’ or foreigner pays 50 pesos for a 4 km ride, equaling 10X times the cost, call it being taken advantage of for being rich, discrimination or just plain theft, this is how you have money stolen from your pockets you rich white foreign travellers. Which is a big misconception because backpackers usually have very little money thus why they stay in dormitory rooms being the cheapest accomodations available, but those selling and providing the services don’t fully know this or believe it I suppose.
December 1st – 9th 2016

Manila/Makati area I arrived here in December being high season, had a reservation at the hostel named ‘Our Melting Pot’ P500 a night for dormitory rooms, breakfast and WiFi included, personally I found the outside noise to loud as I was in the red light district, especially late at night when one wants to sleep. Being a man walking alone around this area the young woman will come to me offering massages and more, handing out contact info.
After a two night stay at Our Melting Pot, I decided to look for another Hostel in a quieter place, found one nearby called MNL Boutique hostel, same price, but I asked for 1 week stay and got a 15% discount which worked out to a free night stay, free breakfast and WiFi included, it was quieter and two grocery stores within walking distance.

Makati is a busy city with much traffic, loud noises, pollution, poor people wanting money from foreigners, so if this is not your cup of tea, but then again I did not do much exploring to see tourists attractions, as with me I conserve what few dollars I have, and enjoy the everyday living and observe what the locals do or behave, I learn more about today’s culture behaviours compared to ancient cultures and history from museums or historic sites thus spending sometimes costly entrance fees which do not seem worth it at times.

I did travel to Paranaque and went inside apparently what I’ve been told by a local being the largest mall in Asia, but a little research revealed it is the 10th largest mall in Asia called the Mall of Asia, it’s location is next to the Ocean, a great place for sunset photos if you happen to be shopping there late afternoon. And the ‘Bay Walk’ is here also.

December 10th – 11th

Coron is a beautiful tropical small town in the Palawan islands. I stayed at Lagrosa Backpackers in dormitory for 400 pesos this is high season in December per night. One of the attractions to do here is climb the 700 stairs to top of Mt.Tapyas to the lookout viewpoint for the entire view of Coron, which is nice if your into photography, I was up there with many others during the sun setting.
December 11th – 12th

After the one day stay, I paid 1200 pesos for a pontoon boat ride to El Nido, now this was a beautiful trip as I took many photos of the many islands with white sandy beaches, palm trees, small huts and pontoon boats on the shoreline, again if your into photography there’s many photos to take that look like the photos being advertised in vacation magazines and liken too. Many of the scenes reminded me of Gilligan’s Island with the tall coconut trees, sandy beaches, a hut or two and a boat on the white sandy shores.
I noticed many flying fish that was exciting to see, if one has never seen flying fish before and sometimes a group of the flying fish together, it’s something to see.

Arriving at El Nido after about 7 hrs, I found Bamboo Billibong Hostel right away and walking distance from where we got off the boat, dormitory rooms 350 pesos a night, again high season, but if you need Internet it is so slow you may not even get it, I’ve been told Internet is poor all over at El Nido. The rooms were not air conditioned, first time for me travelling Philippines without air conditioning, I highly recommend it.
This small town has many, many small pontoon boats for fishing and for tourist to enjoy island hopping or diving and swimming.
Paradise View is a hotel and it has a beautiful view of El Nido, the beach, and the boats, as it is maybe a 20 minute drive away from the town, thus again a spectacular view. These small towns on the Palawan islands such as Coron and El Nido have lost the famous Jeepneys so popular in Manila to tricycles and many of them, I also noticed many pawnshops on the Palawan islands, also.
The very helpful staff at Bamboo Billibong referred the hostel in Puerto Princesa called the Sheebang Hostel, made a reservation for me and reserved a van ride right to the hostel. This was a P500 service charge ride to Puerto Princesa and Sheebang Hostel.
December 12th – 17th

Puerto Princesa downtown reminds me of the very busy streets in the Manila area with too much traffic noise and pollution, again instead of jeepneys everywhere, it’s tricycles. My stay at Sheebang Hostel is great, first place I met so many other Canadian backpackers and there is a beach walking distance from the hostel called BM beach, a 20-30 minute walk, the first time going there not much activity at all, many huts line the beach shoreline making a great photo shot, but the second time at this beach, many families were there with children of all ages having picnics, bbq’s and filling up these huts on the beach having a great time, with many children in the shallow water, I walked into the waters and because of being so shallow for a distance very warm water, actually hot for ocean water.

Here at Sheebang Hostel it appears to be very popular perhaps because of the outside party atmosphere but the beer and food prices are a bit high for the Philippines, but I guess its justified because of convenience. They do serve many breakfast and dinner choices, but if you like Ceasar salads, the Ceasar salad here is a toss salad basically.

I planned to go to Sabang to view the famous underground river, the staff there had a tour package to and from Sabang for 1500 pesos but you can do it yourself for 1000 – 1200 pesos. All you need to do is get to the terminal via tricycle or van I suppose, buy ticket for van ride to Sabang for 200 pesos, then to see underground river is about 575 pesos, now if you need to go back to Puerto Princesa another 200 pesos, a little cheaper than the 1500 pesos package from Sheebang.
Anyways I wanted to stay at Sabang for awhile so I did not book the tour package Sheebang offered and just took van ride to Sabang for 300 pesos, afterwards I find out when I needed a van ride back and forth from Sabang to Puerto Princesa it is only 200 pesos each way, but I suppose one is getting a ride from hostel to terminal and hostel wants a little profit providing service thus within reason I suppose, because a tricycle will probably charge 100 pesos to and from terminal to Sheebang hostel anyways.
December 17th 2016 – January 4th 2017 (18 day stay)

After Puerto Princesa I took a van ride to Sabang to visit the most talked about sightseeing adventure on the Palawan Islands. The ‘Underground River’ which is a Subterranean River and voted as one of the Seven Wonders of Nature. Being a photographer I expected some inside photos, but it is very dark in this cave with only the headlamp of what the guide wears. It is pretty cool inside to see the rock formation and the caves are filled with many, many bats, actually one cave which the guide does not take the sight seers into is called the ‘bat cave’. Most people travel to and from the underground river by boat, but one can hike a trail called the ‘Jungle Trail’ for the more adventurous and fit travellers.

I originally headed to the Blue Bamboo to stay, but a misunderstanding with accomodations and pricing and being told Blue Bamboo was the cheapest accomodations around, I went to Dab Dab beside Blue Bamboo I found better pricing and service by paying for a single room cabin 1 week in advance. I like my stay here at Dab Dab and recommend it.
The cabins are not air conditioned because for the most part no electricity, the generator kicks in from about 5:30 pm – 11:30 pm, just in time to recharge what needs to be recharged. But there are the more expensive and more modern units available at DabDab with air conditioning and electricity I think, probably even flush toilets and personal showers.
The cabins are in a jungle atmosphere setting which is cool for peacefulness and getting back to nature, and a very short walk out of the jungle to the ocean and beach side to view waves and walk the sandy beach, I found it to be like paradise with the best of both worlds so to speak combined. Walk the sandy beach at night and look up at the starry awesome beauty with warm water waves splashing ankles and feet, preferably do this romantic walk with a lover enjoying such a beautiful evening beach walk. As for me….I enjoyed it with me, myself and I.

During my 18 day stay at Sabang I met a very well fit and strong 69 yr. old local man named Vincent, the locals know him as ‘Itik’, he is the caretaker of the protected area of the woods or jungle, a man that has planted many trees as he will point to the trees telling you when he planted that one, this one and the one over there, he is also the garbage collector as he is constantly keeping the streets clean from people’s daily littering in Sabang.

Anyways one day he took me for a hike to see the “Daylight Hole” which is located at the entrance flow of the underground river, as everyone goes to the exit or outflow of the underground river, this 5 hr hiking journey started viewing of the “Elelphant Cave” from the roadside unfortunately, then before you know it walking by rice fields, oxen, which locals call ‘Carabao’ heading into jungle to climb rocks, jagged rocks where you needed to hands to stick into rock crevices to pull yourself up, crossed the river a few times with water up to calf high. The daylight hole is suppose to be a spectacular site when the sun is directly overhead and shining through but for that to happen the axis has to line up perfectly and how often would that happen and at only a certain time of the year also. Anyways it was quite the hike if you are adventurous and like being in the jungle atmosphere. Another day Vincent took me for a hike up the local mountain right in Sabang to get a photo of an overview of Sabang, we only made it a third way up, when Vincent told me the climb is only going to get harder and he was concerned about my health after finding out how many operations I had, so unfortunately we climb back down, but again it was a hike and a half as there is no nice paved path at all, you make your own path many of times and climbing some steep rock again, this day I was sweating profusely, because we did not complete what I wanted to do, I guess he felt a little disappointed and offered to take me to a popular place with travellers/tourists called “Mangrove Forests Paddle Boat Tour”

This Mangrove Forest I enjoyed as it reminded me of photos and videos of being deep in an Amazon jungle with monkeys and snakes in the trees and crocodiles in the water while paddling in a canoe and not knowing what is going to pop out of the jungle or river. I was in a paddle boat, pontoon style and there were snakes visible in the trees curled up sleeping as these snakes were nocturnal, I saw birds dive into the water from trees to catch fish although it looked like they were just getting wet, the roots of the Mangrove trees went into the river being submerged and apparently is what makes the river a murky brown colour, also there are male and female trees with male trees bearing long fruit. I was in the only paddle boat travelling along this river and it was very quiet, peaceful and surreal, about 4:00 in the afternoon the sun shining through the forests was very impressive with the soft golden light rays and shadows forming everywhere. As my friend Vincent being the caretaker of the protected forest in Sabang, he tells of the Mangrove Forest being an ecosystem on what the locals call the ‘Carbon Sink’, as it absorbs and converts the harmful carbon dioxides into a pure breathable oxygen to enable everyone to inhale the breathable oxygen to refresh your respiratory system as what Mother Nature does and is good at. Apparently at one time the Mangrove Forest river did have fresh water crocodiles but no more.

There are many restaurants with high eatery prices, so walk around checking out menu prices because there are much cheaper eateries. Also if you are a vegetarian/vegan good luck, I’ve checked out these many smorgasbords available for 200 pesos, out of the dozen of different foods to choose from, at best only three meatless dishes.
Personally because vegetarian meals are not high on the list, I am usually content buying fresh fruit from the market that can be easily peeled or washed and eaten as is, like tomato, banana, orange, avocado, apple and cucumbers, all for the ease of just buying and eating immediately and for the cheap price and extreme nutritional value, you just cannot beat eating fresh fruits like this, P40 for a mango, P30 for large apple, P20 for smaller ones, cucumbers and oranges P10.

It seems a few travellers go from Sabang to Port Barton a little north of Sabang a 3hr van ride or so where it’s located, approximately 1/2 way between Sabang and El Nido being a little quieter than El Nido as I have been told with nice sandy beaches. Me on the other hand had a flight ticket to Silay/Bacolod but first I decided to see the Crocodile Farm and the Prison Farm both are close by each other before I went to airport. The crocodile farm had scheduled tours and the next tour was too late for me to take, so I continued onward by tricycle to Prison Farm, now the farms are kept in pristine conditioned by inmates so many photographic opportunities as you travel up and down the rocky bumpy road to see inmates and the handicraft workshop where the inmates sell their handy work they’ve created.

January 4th – 18th. 2017

Bacolad-Silay International Airport in the province of Negros Occidental, City of Silay is a third class city and referred to as “The Paris of Negros” it has a sizeable fishing port being witness by the daily catches of fish for sale in the open markets of downtown Silay, where one also gets rides at the terminal from jeepneys or tricycles. City of Bacolod pronounced as ba ko led, is coined as “The City of Smiles” being a friendly city and is a highly urbanized city, Bacolod is also the capital city of Negros Occidental.
According to a survey done by ‘MoneySense Magazine’ in 2008, Bacolod was chosen as the “Best Place to Live in the Philippines”, and also the city has been declared as a “center of excellence” for information technology and business process management operations.
In the Silay area it is all about sugar cane. Sugar cane is grown everywhere here, and this is what the men do for work, growing, harvesting, and burning the fields to replant again another crop, to sell for export to other countries to process as sugar. These men work very hard 8 hours a day 6 days a week for P1600 ($32.US/43.CAD) of pay weekly, I have been told very hard manual labour and getting nose bleeds sometimes, for not much pay for feeding family and other expenses.
Many trucks are loaded with sugar canes every day as you see them being loaded and travelling along the roads slowly.
Oxen as known in North America but here called Carabao are used everywhere here as a valuable tool to pull carts full of sugar cane, sand, rock, and wood to burn or to be used for plowing the field and the Carabao eat the green tops of the sugar cane for its diet and are often taken to river to lay in water. I ate some fresh sugar canes chewing and sucking the juices, very sweet and delicious (masarap).
Jackfruit is plentiful in the Silay area, this fruit very healthy for eating and can grow huge, weighing like 35 kg.

I went to Patag Mountian for an overnight stay, cabin rentals being P500-800 a night to rent, the swimming pool is fed from the local mountain and is very cold water to swim in, but staff will empty, clean and refill pool with clean water in no time. If the weather is dry one can go for hike to see the waterfalls, 6 in total I have been told, but with me the weather was wet and I was told the hike would be too slippery to travel.
January 19th – February 9th 2017 (3 week stay)

Leaving Bacolod back to Manila (Quezon City/Noavaliches/Sauyo) I travelled by boat once again simply because it was cheaper than flying, but it is a 20 hour boat ride at a cost of about P1800. compared to flying which is about a 45 minute flight and cost about P4000 or more.
Now that I have met a Philipino girl, I am staying with her for awhile at her place in the Novaliches, Sauyo, Quezon City, which is apparently still part of Manila I have been told, anyways I am experiencing once again how the very poor live and I too do the same, eat food with my fingers, and wipe my ass clean by cupping hand with water several times to have a clean bottom, then scooping small buckets of water from large bucket to manually flush everything away, if I was using toilet paper normally it goes into a garbage can rather than being flushed down the toilet. As far a eating the Philipino’s eat rice at every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
To wash or bath oneself the same room with the toilet, again just grab small bucket or scooper of cold water, get yourself wet and soapy and rinse, again done manually no showers, but one could be bathing with cockroaches and/or baby lizards.

The one place I have been staying at being with a poor family near Novaliches Quezon City, the area being in Sauyo, has a very good outdoor market called ‘BagBag Market’ selling just about everything, fresh fish is available after 4 pm as one can still see the fish breathing and hopping on the tables, fresh buns and pastries, all the fruits and vegetables one could want, then at either end of the market is the terminal for tricycles or the other end having access to bus or Jeepneys for travel. I liked the way the market looked and how everything was presented, the atmosphere was friendly and seemed safe.

Now being in the Manila area and wanting to travel anywhere, by bus or jeepney, the traffic is heavy and very congested so long waits and slow travelling, and tight fitting inside the Jeepney’s at times like the ol’ saying squished like a can of sardines.

Before I leave Philippines, two more places I have planned to encounter, one is a dam and reservoir very nearby where I am staying, called the ‘La Mesa Dam and Reservoir/Eco Park, and the other place to see is called ‘Venice Grand Canal Mall’ still in Manila but probably at least a 2 hour bus ride from where I am.
One thing of many that I have noticed in the Philippines throughout my travels so far are the malls, many of them and big malls also. I was at probably the biggest mall in Manila yesterday having 5 levels, what I found interesting was that anything to do with electronics was on one level as with anything to do with clothing was on another level.

I travelled to La Mesa Dam and Reservoir which is an earth dam, but could not see too much of it as I was looking at it from wire fencing and from across the road, as I was on the La Mesa Eco Park side, the entrance fee to park is P50 and it it liken to a nature park and/ or jungle type with walkways to garden areas and pool for swimming with a fee again to pay. There are a couple of eateries and places to purchase drinks, sitting areas to picnic and cook. There was a butterfly sanctuary, I went on a Monday and was told the park is very quiet Monday through Thursday’s with children being in school and adults working, but on the weekends busy with many families picnicking, riding bikes, swimming and walking the trails. The park has some beautifully landscaped garden areas, a large waterway through park and ponds with Koi’s swimming in them.

The Dam supplies most of the drinking water to Metro Manila, holding 50.5 million cubic metres of water and occupying 27 square kilometres in Quezon City, Philippines. Metro Manila East Zone 1.5 million litres of water pass through the reservoir every day.

I travelled to the Manila Zoo, entrance fee P100 and it is your basic zoo with caged animals pacing back and forth or just sleeping life away because they do not like being caged up, as with many zoo’s, but this one was pretty pathetic with lack of room for the animals to roam and no natural settings for the animals, such as grass, dirt, trees,boulders, but instead just concrete and seeing crocodiles laying on cold concrete was deplorable to me. This zoo had an elephant, tigers, many crocodiles a couple being very large, birds, snakes, turtles, peacocks and fish, there was a large pink hippopotamus also. There was a park for the children to play at, and some eateries there too. Overall the zoo was not a great one, it was small and very basic with too much concrete and cleanliness was minimal. There was one elephant and elephants need room to roam and are very social beings like man they need companionship, this elephant was indeed sad, but then man has created a prison planet for himself asking permission to travel, eat, live, work, you name it we have to ask permission for everything we do, so I guess man are caged animals in essence too sometimes, having to pay to live on this one and only planet we call home, or we suffer a great deal. So as with mankind being all of these other animals we cage or wild animals, it would appear those with the most freedom are indeed the wild animals roaming the earth, flying the sky’s, or swimming the oceans, until captured for food, caged or killed for pleasure. Freedom…does it truly exist or just exists in ones mind as a idea or concept as a inner freedom?

I made the journey to McKinsley Hill which also has the Venice Grand Canal Mall, this appears to be the most luxurious area within the City of Manila. It is a mall with shopping stores and restaurants for the most part with the featured attraction or the most picturistique man made canal in the centre of mall surrounded by luxurious colourful apartments. It cost P350 a head to go into the paddle boat and be on the water in the canal looking up at everyone and the view, the length of the canal is not that long, thus maybe just a 20 min. ride. Not much too exciting here but just to see the picturistique beauty of what Manila could look like I guess, it is called Venice for a reason giving it that authentic Venice look.

Overall in the Philippines I have noticed many signage posting help wanted or job positions available just about everywhere I travelled and looked. There are many areas that are dirty with garbage and trash building up on the streets, but eventually it is cleaned up and the piles start over again. I noticed areas at the piers where the boats are loaded for passenger travel that the waters and beaches had much, much garbage, it was disgusting and shameful. I found most of the Pilipino people to be very friendly and polite, if not referring to me as ‘Joe’ on the streets, then it was ‘sir’ in restaurants or hostels. Women were referred to as ‘mom’ by servers.
Being white I am looked at as being a rich foreigner to taxi drivers, and tricycle operators thus the ride payments always costing more, as much as 20X more I found out. When I made friendships with some Philipinos I felt as if I was looked at as a bank with endless cash as it seemed I was expected to buy or pay for things for them if I asked: “Would you like to go for a coffee or bite to eat?” The reply would be sure, and then I’d order a salad only being a so called vegetarian/vegan to eat, while the local Philipino I sit with orders a meat dish and pop, my portion P200 and the one I’m sitting with portion is P430, who pays for it all? The so called rich white foreigner because we Philipino’s have no money, as we are a poor people, thank you, Mister.
Oh well it’s not the end of the world and it is a learning experience I suppose, I would like to think if I am poor and in need that someone would do the same for me.

My Olympus camera stopped working for me on Christmas Day while I was in Sabang on the Palawan Islands and now that I’m back in Manila thought I could take to authorized Olympus for repairs, no such luck as the camera is to new and cannot be fixed in the Philippines so I need to wait until I travel to Indonesia or Malaysia to other authorized Olympus camera repair centres, trusting not the same problem as here in Philippines with the camera being to new for the technicians to fix. One would think if there’s an authorized Olympus camera repair in the Philippines that there would be technicians capable of fixing and repairing any model that is on the market.

Next destination for ‘peaceful’ is Kuala Lumpur Malaysia February 9th…,