Philippines

So, I’m flying to the Philippines today. Early. The bus for the airport left at 3 in the morning. The flight to Sydney was on time, but the flight to Manila was late and the inflight entertainment system did not work. Interestingly enough that makes you interact with other people a lot more. I talked with a Filipino woman who sat beside me. Her name was Emy. She was on her way to visit her family in north Luzon. I also played with one of the kids in the seat row in front of me.

I arrived at Manila airport after nightfall and it was very hot and very, very humid. The moment I came out of the airport, I broke out in sweat. I decided to take the bus into the city. There was an airport bus, and it cost so much less than I was used to (about 3CHF). It was one of those buses that you needed to wave down. I guess all buses work like this here.

There is so much traffic in Manila. Most often, the bus would move forward at a crawl or just stand still, locked in with other cars moving in from other roads. Many people just tooted their horns at seemingly random moments. A lot of the vehicles and constructions, like houses or bridges as well as cars, jeepneys, motorcycles, tricycles etc. had neon coloured lights. Some changing colour and blinking all the time. This made for an interesting spectacle. Also, like the buses in Ecuador, the jeepneys are plastered with signs, religious messages and imagery and, sometimes, commercials.

The bus only took me to EDSA station. Luckily I had started talking with two Filipino women on the bus and they showed me where and how to take the train. They even almost walked me to the platform. The train cost about 0.30CHF and it was packed! Full to the brim with people, pressing together on you from all sides. I felt kind of awkward, taking up so much space with my huge rucksack. I took a taxi from the train station to the hotel, since the two women told me that it wasn’t safe to walk. Of course, the taxi driver tried to rip me off, trying to say that I owed him a fee because the road was under construction. Yeah, right. I let it slide though, since the amount he wanted was less than a dollar and, at this point, I was too tired to argue.

My hotel was very shabby and the room had no window and nothing but a fan. I still took it, though.

In the morning, I went food shopping at the local supermarket. It seems that receipts are important here. I had to get mine checked and stamped upon exiting the supermarket. Later on I read somewhere that you can get up to 4 years of prison for not issuing a receipt. I also found out that I was close to a shopping mall and so I went and bought a local SIM card there. The mall was so big though, it took me about an hour to find the shop and load the card.

Walking around in this part of town called Ermita, just south of Rizal Park, I found the usual Asian ordered chaos. People walking on the streets, children asking for coins, loose electricity cables hanging down, bundles of electricity cables snaking through everywhere, street stalls with people selling goods on the sidewalk, feral dogs and cats, children bathing in plastic swimming pools on the sidewalk, babies close to their mothers the latter selling things on towels or plastic tarps on the sidewalk, jeepney drivers fixing their jeepneys on the sidewalk, tricycle drivers and homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk, lots of beggars - you might have guessed by now, that, mostly, there is no space on the sidewalk,  or no sidewalks at all, so I mostly walked on the street, just like everyone else. Luckily there isn’t that much traffic in my suburb.

The smell is a mixture of piss, stale water, and food of all sorts and sometimes is pleasant, but most often isn’t.

Traffic lights are a guideline, but not something that most people follow here.

There is a lot of English here. Often things would be written in English or some words of a Tagalog message would be in English, especially in advertising. Then, the Spanish influence is very noticeable as well. Mostly in the names of people. Most often people have an English first name and a Spanish surname. Or both names would be Spanish. This is, of course, since the country had been colonized by the Spanish and then, bought(!) from the Spanish by the Americans at the end of the 19th century. Also, about 98% of all people are devout Catholics, owing that to the Augustinian monks who spread it during the Spanish rule. There are other, more recent influences, too. In Manila, there are a lot of Chinese, Korean and Japanese restaurants, stores and people. I found a lot of Asian stores here, that I had also seen in Auckland, which was kind of comforting.

In the afternoon, I went to the town/suburb of Makati, to the medical center there, to get my Japanese Encephalitis shot. I took another packed train and a jeepney there. I learned how to ride jeepney today. You pay after you get on, by getting the money to the driver and you say “para po” when you want to get off.

I was pretty surprised to find a Burger King and a Pizza Hut as the main restaurants at the medical center. Talk about conceptual contradictions! The doctors were curious about me and interested in my travel stories. Even when you are a doctor in Manila you apparently don’t earn enough money  to leave the country to travel, so they asked me about a lot of things about my culture.

I walked through Makati for a while and came across this river. You would not believe the stench of it. It kind of made me sad.

In the evening, I took a jeepney back to my hotel. This was probably not the smartest thing to do, but nothing bad happened.

At my hostel I had a talk with a weird American guy in his 50s, who seemed to be drunk all the time. I tried to excuse myself, since I was tired, but with some people it’s not that easy and we ended up talking a lot. I got into my room eventually, though, which, to be honest, was torture. The fan did nothing to alleviate the heat and I was dripping with sweat soon. I was also still suffering from jet lag, so I woke up way too early and very often.

I decided to go to Intramuros today. And walked through Rizal Park to get there. There were loudspeakers in that park, blaring out Celine Dion. Apart from the national hero monument of Rizal there were also smaller monuments of heroes that died during various rebellions against the Spanish.

I also found a Chinese Garden there and decided to walk through it, to find some relief from the smog and traffic and people noise outside. It was the first time since I had arrived here that I saw birds. There were a couple of youngsters in that garden, too, practicing a chant, not unlike a Maori haka.

I walked to Intramuros from there. Intramuros is… strange. It is the one part of the city that was restored after Manila had been destroyed in the World War II, hinting at it’s former glory. The government put a lot of money into it to make Intramuros look as it used to. To me, when I compare it with the rest of Manila I find it lacks a certain soul, or life. Sure the streets are beautiful, sometimes cobblestoned, and the buildings are superb, but there are no people here. It feels just a little abandoned and clinical, you know, apart from the tricycle drivers yelling after me all the time, wanting to give me a lift, since I am a white person.

I went to St. Augustine Museum and church to learn more about the history of the Augustinian monks. In there, they showed a movie that propagated how the Augustinian monks and missionaries were all about love. Of course they omitted all the atrocities those monks had done in this country in the name of religious bigotry.

I also went to Manila cathedral. The vaccine was giving me trouble. I wasn’t feverish exactly, just very, very tired. My whole body screamed for sleep. So, I just sat down for a while in the prayer room of the cathedral to get at least some of my strength back, but it didn’t really work all that well. I found that I could hardly process anything anymore.

After checking out the big plaza in front of the ayuntamiento, I decided to walk back to the mall and get some food.

I found myself a nice katsu restaurant. I soon got into a conversation with one of the two people at the table next to me. His name was Lawrence and he was there with his daughter. His daughter soon went shopping and so we just talked for a while. To my astonishment Lawrence told me that he was retired at 45 and was planning to build a new house right now. He obviously had made a lot of money with his bank job. He was a nice guy and gave me a lot of good tips for restaurants in Manila.

After that I dragged myself back to the hotel.

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People will often call you “Ma'am” in the Philippines. While being called darling or sweetie in Australia made me feel somewhat patronized, this somehow makes me feel old. But I got used to it after a while. Men are predictably calls “Sir” and if both are present, it’s “Ma'am-Sir”.

I had to sleep and I slept a lot. I had fallen asleep at 6 in the evening, then woke up at 1am, brushed my teeth, talked to this weird American guy at my hotel for a while, went back to bed and then didn’t wake till half past 10. That is more than 12 hours of sleep!

I was still tired though. I think it’s mostly the heat. I still have trouble eating a full meal.

In the afternoon I dragged myself to the mall and watched “The Jungle Book”. Then I went and had dinner at a place called “The Aristocrat”, a Philippine restaurant that Lawrence had recommended to me. I had a soup, some noodles with meat and veggies, and a really sweet drink with lots of jellies and gel bubbles in it that the waitress had recommended I’d try.

Then I went back to the hotel and just slept again. I hope this whole heat thing stops getting to me at some point.

So I got up at 4 today to get to the airport, for a flight that is at 8:20 because my hotel staff were worried, probably rightly so, about traffic. Traffic was surprisingly ok, and by ok I mean you could actually move forward at a decent speed, which means, for Europeans, this is still a lot of traffic.

My flight took me to Caticlan and, by extension, Boracay. When you arrive at the airport you need to take a small boat over from the mainland of Visayas to the island of Boracay.

I had a room in a small hotel in the South of the island, about two kilometers away from the beach and far, far away from anything. After packed Manila, Boracay seemed somewhat desolate to me. There was almost nothing than those small stall-like shops and almost no people.

Culture shock pretty much hit me full on, here. After walking to the city center and the beach and backagain for half an hour in the blistering heat (I somehow didn’t have the courage to have a motorcycle take me, even though you get asked every 10 meters if you want a ride), I got pretty depressed. The foreignness, the heat, the smog, there suddenly there not being a lot of people. Everything just got me down.

In the evening, I went to the beach again and had a pizza. There was a guy with a guitar, singing songs at the restaurant. That kind of lifted up my spirits. So I made a decision. I wanted to change my hotel to one that was closer to the beach. The bustle of the people would make me feel a bit better. I would be closer to the action.

I had booked a hotel the previous night and changed to it now. Then I basically spent the day at the beach. And I was right. I did feel a little less depressed.

Boracay is weird. The main beach is extremely packed, full of people, restaurants, clubs, vendors and stalls. It feels like every possible square meter has been used to make profit off of tourists. Most of these stalls sell you tours or want to give you either braids or a henna tattoo or even a real tattoo. Then there are walking vendors and those who sell their wares on blankets everywhere as well, though they appear more often at night. Basically, you get talked to every few meters.

There are three layers to Boracay.

Layer 1: The busy main street about 500 meters away from the beach with all the motorcycles and tricycles and electric jeepneys etc. Convenience stores and restaurants are on this street, as well as several open air malls with restaurants and diving gear stores, leading from the street to the beach.

Layer 2: The hotels on the beach and the walkway right in front of them. That’s where all the stalls and the restaurants are. Some have their chairs, beanbags and sunbeds right on the beach. Also, on this layer, there is no traffic, just pedestrians.

Layer 3: This is is the beach itself. There are regulations that nothing can be built or put on the beach a certain amount of meters away from the shoreline, so it’s gratefully empty of stalls and vendors. Walking along the water is actually kind of calming.

There are so many bangkas (boats) of all kinds, on the beach as well. Some are the traditional fishing boats with their bamboo extensions for equilibrium, others being fast motor boats.

All in all, Boracay is a weird kind of wonderland. Probably similar to Palma and Ibiza, though for me it didn’t feel like that much of a party zone.

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There are roosters everywhere and you can hear them all the time. The reason for that is that cock fighting is a very normal past time here.

I have also had ants in every single hotel room I’ve been so far, no matter the floor. They seem to be a common occurrence here.

Filiponos go “bsst” when they want to call out to someone on the street. You hear that often.

I went mermaiding today and it was great fun! I know, I know. There is this social stigma about it being only for middle aged woman who have a midlife crises. But I was just really curious! And honestly: I loved how it felt to swim with the tail. Swimming with a monofin feels different from swimming with flippers and takes some getting used to. If you turn swiftly it seems to be in your way for a bit, but other than that I rather enjoyed it. The only thing that marred the experience a little was that I got seasick by the end of it. No idea why.

We were four people and actually got a lot of attention and comments, mostly from men. They were all good natured and somewhat admiring, though, so I thought it was pretty funny.

I went to Mang Inasal for dinner. It was the cheapest restaurant I could find and apparently only Filipinos go there.

I wanted to do a SCUBA diving refresher course today and it didn’t work out very well. As soon as I was in the water, I got seasick and I felt strangely claustrophobic and panicky. I felt that it would be Coffs Harbour all over again. So I decided to stop and go back to the dive shop. I had a good chat with my dive master, Rony, though. He took me to a really nice and cheap restaurant. Turns out he has a wife and daughter in the Netherlands and goes to Europe whenever he can afford it. He was also a Filipino dragon boat chapion who competed internationally.

After the rather unpleasant diving episode, I relaxed at the beach some more.

I had to find out why I got seasick all the time, so I went to the doctor’s. Of course it was my ear. Cerumen buildup and an ear drum infection. The verdict: no water related activities for at least three days.

More beach and more relaxing then.

In the evening, I ran into Rony and a friend of his and we went for dinner in Mang Inasal again. It was packed. I feel I need to explain the food there some more. You mostly get rice and chicken there. As a sauce, you mix some chili with the soy sauce, add some white vinegar and then squeeze at least one calamansi (a tiny lime) into it. All Filipinos do this ritual for most of their food. It creates an interesting kind of staple seasoning.

After that we walked the streets some more and came across this night fish market.

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Toilets are called comfort rooms here. Public toilets have no toilet paper in the stalls, but you have to get the paper from a dispenser on  the outside, where the sinks are. You also don’t throw the toilet paper into the toilet, but into the bin.

Showers are also interesting. Apart from the unusual shower head, you also often have a second tap below with which you can fill up a bucket and then use a ladle in that bucket to wash yourself. Alternatively, when the toilet flush is broken, you can also use that bucket to flush the toilet.

They often offer unli rice or unli SMS. It took me a while to understand that this means unlimited.

It’s almost never possible to pay with a Credit Card. Most stores use old tills or even just calculators.

Today was my flight to Dumaguete. I had to get up really early to take the ferry over from Boracay to Visayas to the airport. I wonder if it should bother me that some airplane passengers do the sign of the cross when they enter the plane.

So, Dumaguete. I did what I always do in such situations: walk through the city, in spite of the heat. I think it is safe to say that I have gotten more or less used to the heat by now. The city felt calm and nice, though I guess in comparison with Manila everything feels that way. It also had a pretty ocean promenade.

The city was also a bit greener than I was used to, with some trees lining some streets and a nice little park. All in all, I really liked it, actually. Of course it has a lot of bicycle and tricycle traffic and a few Jeepneys as well.

Dumaguete is mostly a university city and much of it is dominated by the Silliman (yes, Silliman) University campus.

On my walk, I met a black American expat called Isaac. He was a missionary and told me that he liked it a lot here. People were a lot less racist than in the US and he felt a lot safer. Somehow that made me a little sad.

I also found a store called Unitop, where they sell incredibly cheap products. From knockoff tablets and phones to toys, to clothes, to stationary, they sell pretty much everything that’s not edible. The smell of plastic, especially in the clothes department is rather overpowering and sickening though and really turned me off buying anything at all.

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One of the interesting things about Filipino city life is that there is security everywhere. They are usually on the entrances of stores and malls, controlling your bag. They would use a wooden stick to look into it. Sometimes also at the entrance of restaurants, such as Jollibee. There is even an extra security check at the airport, right when you come in, which I don’t understand at all. Most security people wear hats with transparent, netted tops, because of the heat.

Jollibee is the fast food chain of choice here. Their basic menu is fried chicken and rice and their mascot is an ever-smiling bee. Chowking is another chain, that mainly deals in Asian food, such as noodle dishes and various rice dishes. But, of course, there is MacDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut as well. They are just not as common and, compared to Jollibee, do not feel as institutionalized.

There is karaoke, or videoke, as it is called her, everywhere, too. It seems to be something of a national past-time and a lot of people have their own videoke box at home (they’re sold almost everywhere in hardware stores). Mostly the singers sing horribly, but that doesn’t bother anyone. Apparently it’s bad manners to laugh at people singing badly.

The Philippines are currently voting for their new president, vice president and senate. This happens every six years. And this means that there are voting posters everywhere. Litterally. Every possible wall, electricity post, tricycle etc. is plastered with posters. There are posters lined on ropes across the street, posters on big and small ships and, the most interesting of all, there are wagons with loudspeakers patrolling through the streets that blare out songs about how great their candidate is (or at least that’s what I assume that they are singing). It is pretty insane, but interesting, too.

I have to say that Filipino food is not the best. It is mostly way too sweet for European tastes. Every single meal has sugar in it. They even put extra sugar into noodles and toast that are already sweet by themselves. There is rice in abundance and it is dirt cheap. “One rice”, which is a certain portion of rice, bundled in a plastic or palm leaf packaging, usually costs between 5 and 20 pesos, which is less than a cent. There is a lot of meat, mostly chicken or entrails or pork fat slices. There is a lot of fruit and not a lot of veggies. I think what I like most, are those stalls and restaurants, where you have a line of pans and pots, all with certain kinds of dishes. Then you just choose a serving of the ones you like, usually served on a small plate and one rice to top it all off. Meals like that usually cost about 120 to 160 pesos.

So all in all, the food is waaaay too sweet and I don’t like it as much. That being said, I really like the desserts. They make some mean ice cream and there are a lot of bakeries, selling good sweet dishes. The national ice cream is ube, also known as yam, and it actually isn’t as sweet. You usually have something that is called Halo Halo for desert, which is one scoop of ube ice cream on top of ice, candied fruits, beans, corn flakes, corn, and a whole lot of other things. There is also something called fried ice cream. This is what it sounds like: ice cream inside a fried cover, a bit thicker than a Schnitzel cover. So you have a warm crust and a cold ice cream in the middle. I have no dead how they create it. It’s pretty good and you can eat it by hand as well.

I had something weird happen today. When I was in a mall, all of a sudden everyone stopped moving and kept quiet. I soon realized that there was a recording coming over a loudspeaker and that people were making the sign of the cross at various points during this recording. A Google search confirmed that certain areas in the Philippines have a daily prayer of about a minute. It is mostly at 3 o'clock, but in Dumaguete it was at 6 o'clock. It was a pretty surreal experience.

I went snorkeling on Apo Island today. I really enjoyed it, too. The tour departed from Dauin, a town south of Dumaguete. The boats were the typical Filipino boats with the bamboo floaters on the side, but bigger than a regular fishing boat.

We went to three different spots and saw lots of corals, fish and… sea turtles! Man, do I love sea turtles.

The meals were included and we had bananas and sweet toast with coconut jam for breakfast and stir fry noodles for lunch.

On the boat I met Olivia and Nikko, two Filipinos from Manila. Olivia told me that they were going on the Oslob whale shark tour tomorrow. Since usually the tours are pretty hard to get on, as they need a certain number of people to actually take place, I asked them if I could join them. So there was my plan for the next day.

I went on the whale shark tour today and had to get up at 6am. It was me, Olivia, her boyfriend Nikko, a woman from Bacolod called Mei and two Canadians.

Writing about this tour now, I feel not too happy that I’ve done it. The reason is, that the local fisher people of Oslob feed the whale sharks, so that they come closer to the shore and so that they can show them to people. The revenue they get from the tourists is good for the local economy, of course, but there has been talk that this disrupts whale shark migration and keeps them in one spot.

There were a lot of people there and a lot of boats and you can only spend 20 minutes in the water, snorkeling with them. Personally, I felt crowded and stressed. I don’t even wanna know how the whale sharks feel.

There were a lot of whale sharks, too, but seeing them being fed like giant koi… it just felt weird and unnatural. So in the end, I am not very comfortable with this tour and I would never do anything like that again. And, if you really like whale sharks and are reading this: please don’t dive with them in Oslob. Seek them out in their natural environment.

After the tour, the Canadians left us and the three Filipinos and I went for lunch in Dumaguete. We had a great time and I got along with them really well. We also went to a fried ice cream shop for dessert and Mei actually bought me some ube ice cream, since I have not had it before. That was incredibly sweet of her. Everyone was really nice to me and I felt almost pampered.

We soon had to go back to the hotel though and so we hugged and said our goodbyes.

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In the Philippines people most often only eat with a spoon and a fork. Knives are rare. To cut food, you use the rim of the spoon. Other times people also eat with their hands.

Filipinos start celebrating Christmas in September and have special dinners every weekend from that month onward until actual Christmas Day. In most families it is expected that everyone buys gifts for everyone.

Off to Siquijor it is.

I met an American called Trevor and a German girl called Amelie today in the morning during breakfast. Turns out that they, too, are going to Siquijor today. Trevor lives there and he has probably one of the odder jobs in the world: he digs out waterfalls, removing all the muck from the base, and creates a campground close to it for tourists. Basically he intends to market the waterfalls, called Lugnason Falls, more. We talked for a bit, then I went to the ferry, meeting two French speaking Swiss people from the Wallis on the way. They were pretty interesting.

I took the fast ferry, which is a bit more expensive. When you take the ferry, there are three to four counters, usually:  the ticket counter, the terminal fee counter, the luggage check in counter, and sometimes a seat number counter. Ticket, terminal fee and luggage all cost money and they all have a queue. We got to watch a movie on the ferry, too - which was probably one of the worst movie choices ever: it was “No Escape” with Owen Wilson. A movie, where an American family goes to “South-East Asia” and ends up in the middle of an uprising where terrorists kill off only Caucasians for some reason that only makes sense in the context of the film. Great movie choice, guys.

Once on Siquijor, I rode a motorbike for the first time. I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with this kind of transportation method, since it involves putting your arms around a complete stranger to hold on, but it is a cheap form of transportation.

I ended up at the Blue Wave Inn where I just relaxed for a bit and organized my trip over Siquijor for tomorrow.

I had met a Chinese couple at the bar. They were about the same age as me and they had decided to join me for a tour around the island today. Sisi, the woman spoke reasonably good English. She was a bossy person, but in a good-mannered way and I kinda liked her. I had rented a tricycle driver for the day and between the three of us, that was 20CHF each (which is actually rather expensive).

We first visited the Francis of Assisi Church in Siquijor City.

Then we drove into the mountains to Cantabon cave for some spelunking. That cave was interesting. It was partially filled with water, so that meant, I had to wear my bathing suit and I rented some plastic sandals. We also got a helmet and a head light. I felt a bit naked and unprotected (and had, admittedly, initial concerns for my safety), walking down into that cave, full of sharp edges that could scrape your skin. But we had two good guides and it was a good, albeit a bit exhausting walk with stalagmites and stalactites, underground ponds, glittering rock formations, rivers and waterfalls and even some small bats.

We went on to Mt. Bandilaan where we had a spectacular view over the island.

Then we visited a butterfly garden where we were told some information about the local butterflies.

The two Chinese wanted to go to Cambugahay Falls for a swim and I agreed. Because my ears were throbbing again, I didn’t go, but instead bought some Spanish plums, or sargwelas, at the stores around the waterfall’s pool and had a nice little chat with the store owners. We also bought some mango and a bit of rice for lunch. I found out that Filipinos eat their mangoes with salt.

We went to Lazi to check out the San Isidoro Labrador church and a school.

Next, we went to the so called Sacred Balete tree. The tree was not as interesting, as dangling your feet into the water below it and have cleaner fish cleaning your feet. That was a first for me. I also bought a coconut there and drank coconut juice and ate fresh coconut meat for the first time. I was surprised to find that coconut meat is actually rather slimy, not the hard, dry fair we get back in Switzerland. I also bought some chicharon chips out of curiosity.

Finally, we went to Lugnazon falls, to meet Trevor and he took us on a hike to show us his 12 waterfalls he was renovating. Even though there was no water on those falls, because of the dry season, we still learned a lot of interesting things about the project Trevor was working on.

We had a small peek at Capilay Spring Park.

Then, we went back to Siquijor and had dinner. Probably the cheapest dinner I have ever had, too. It worked out at 165 pesos for all of us, which is about 1CHF or one dollar per person. It’s crazy how cheap food is here. I usually pay between 2 and 4 CHF for a full meal.

Then we went back to the hotel with a tricycle and Sisi showed me how to negotiate prices better. I think because of her I gained a bit more negotiation confidence and am more ready to haggle ferociously.

I spent the morning at the hotel.

Then I took the ferry to Bohol today. It was a pretty long ferry ride going to Dumaguete, which was 45 minutes, and then to Tagbilaran which was two hours. The good thing about it was, I could watch “Mission Impossible 5: Rogue Nation”. Something concerning about the ferries is, that they play a prayer on the television before the boat leaves port. I guess it has something to do with the fact that Filipinos are inherently fatalist.

In Tagbilaran, I put my new found haggling confidence to the test and got a tricycle for 20 pesos instead of 50. Still not perfect, but I’m getting there.

I checked the city out for a bit, and booked a tour for tomorrow.

So, what do you do in Bohol when you book a tour? You go and see the Tarsiers and the Chocolate Hills, of course.

I had my own car and driver called Domingo. We first went to the Tarsier sancutary where I learned a lot about those little protosimians. I thought the sanctuary was pretty good, since you could not talk when you were in it and it seemed that the tarsiers were given plenty of space.

Then we went to the Chocolate Hills, which are really nice to look at by itself. The hill where you could see them from was of course part of the huge tourist machinery with stalls and shops and a restaurant and performances by children, which I just boycot!

Domingo decided to take me to his house and I had something that was called a Sparkle, which is just like Sprite, and some cookies, and was introduced to his parents Julio and Sami and his cousin and their family, who lived next door. The house was small and made from wood, with a corrugated iron roof and by our standards it would have counted as rather poor. But it had a comfy chair and all the furniture you could want. There was also a cat and two dogs. It was a rather interesting experience and everyone was really friendly, albeit a bit reluctant.

Domingo is what I would call a good man. He has a wife and two daughters and works seven days a week to provide his daughters with good education. One of his daughters studies psychology. He’s normally a jeepney driver, but sometimes he gets odd jobs like driving rich tourists like me around.

After than we went a hanging place. Pretty much another tourist trap.

For lunch I went on one of those very kitchy boat tours down the Loboc river. It included another performance by local villagers that I don’t know if it is ethically sound or not. But the food was good. I had a whole crab on my plate!

I also went to see another butterfly shelter and a small zoo with a large python in it. The butterfly shelter was ok, but the zoo was pretty sad, so I didn’t linger long.

After Domingo had dropped me off at the hotel, I had the feeling that I should get something healthy, so I went to the local supermarket and bought some vegetables. It’s interesting to note that chips and crackers of any sort seem to count as real, normal food here and many people buy them by the bucketload.

In the evening I went to see “Captain America: Civil War”, which is a damn solid movie.

Domingo had shown me that there is a bus station not too far from my hotel, where the jeepneys to Panglao depart from. So I took a jeepney to that island just South of Bohol.

Let me tell you something: you are packed into that Jeepney. There are at least 20 people if not more in there, some sitting on the seats on the side, some on benches in the middle and if that space has run out, they stand on small steps on the back of the bus. It’s pretty interesting and of course not very comfortable. But I don’t really mind all that actually. There is something comforting in sharing that little space with so many strangers. Plus, I only paid 25 pesos for a journey of over 45 minutes, so I’m not complaining.

At the hotel, my room was changed to an apartment, because of a booking mishap on their part, which I thought was really cool.

I spent the day relaxing on the beach. Panglao is a lot lest touristy than Boracay. Which I think is really nice for a change.

I took the ferry to Cebu today.

When I disembarked, Facebook told me that one of the people I met in Brisbane at that dinner with Mizuki, a Japanese guy calles Jin, was actually in Cebu at the moment. Right at that moment I thought that Facebook is the coolest thing in the world. So we made plans to have dinner and catch up.

Cebu is pretty nice. The streets are wide and there is not too much traffic — though the latter could be because the elections were today, so a lot of people went to vote and didn’t work. My hotel is pretty good, too. I’m still amazed at how much you get for under 20CHF per night.

I have not seen a single tricycle in Cebu, so I took a jeepney to where Jin was. I prefer jeepneys anyway. I found out that here you clink a coin against the hand rail under the roof when you want to stop and get out.

Dinner with Jin was great! We had a good talk. It turns out, the reason why he was in Cebu, was that he was doing a language school here.

I did my duty as a tourist today and went and looked at some touristy things.

I first went to Carbon Public Market.

Then to Magellan’s Cross, the place where Ferdinand Magellan placed the first Christians cross in the Philippines.

Then I wandered on to the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, and went and saw the Holy Child there. There was a queue for it, and once people arrived, they touched the glass, the statue of the Holy Child was in, kissed the small altar in front of it or prayed. It was an interesting thing to witness. This alter is one of the holiest in the Philippines and a lot of people come from all over to see it.

Finally, I went to Fort San Pedro. It had been built by Legazpi and its purpose had been to defend the small settlement of Cebu against enemy tribes and their kings, attacking mostly from the ocean.

By that time, it was already pretty hot out, so I took a jeepney and went to a Robinson’s mall to get some food. Then I went window shopping in a few other malls and walked through the city a bit more.

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Not a lot of Filipinos smoke. Probably because it’s too expensive.

I’m not sure, but I think I have not heard a single siren in Cebu or, come to think of it, in any other part of the country. This is kind of weird. You would think that people also need an ambulance in this country. I guess ambulance and police usually operate without sirens?

There are some men here that dress up as woman. There is very little information about this available, but I find it interesting and wonder what the social context is.