The Philippines: Perlas ng Silanganan

I visited the Philippines twice now and have had sweet memories everytime. The first time was back in the summer of 2015 when a friend and like a sister of mine, Ellen organised trip to Dakak Beach Resort in Dapitan City, Philippines along with Darren, Allan Michael. The resort is situated at the tip of the southern state of Mindanao so we got there with a connecting flight from Manila to Dipolog Airport. I believe we also got a good group rate to stay for a few days at the resort, plus a day of scuba diving - thanks to Ellen. Our friend, Elmer is also the dive instructor there, and previously work together with us in Brunei at Poni Divers.

You have to try the 1.3km long zipline at the resort!! An experience I will forever cherish. Imagine doing a superman pose gliding through and on your right, you get to see the beautiful long coastline of white sandy beach... wow.

So let's talk about the ... Cebu Pacific Air! This is Philippines low-cost carrier airline and it has a direct flight from Brunei to Manila at such a cheap price. I had flew with them a couple of times, and they are notoriously known for their delays (even my own Filipinas friends can attest to this). I do not mind it, as long as the flight is not cancelled then I am cool with it. Apart from the bright and cheerful uniforms donned by the cabin crew, this airline is pretty special in a sense that it does reflects the Filipino culture.

Pretty awesome, right?

Now that's a short remark about the people, it is time to talk about the adventures I had when I was there. As a scuba dive instructor and an avid marine conservationist, I would almost always choose the Philippines as the BEST diving place in the world - simply because of its location as the highest biodiversity hotspot i.e. coral triangle. I saw new creatures every time I dived here and that is very special.

I spent a month as a marine volunteer with Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), staying in the remote parts of Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte in the summer of 2016. For the tourists out there, this place is not too far from Cebu (whale sharks) and to get here by air you should land at Tacloban City. The Visayas state is blessed with their beautiful ocean and breathtaking natural landmarks such as the famous Bohol Chocolate Hills, Boracay, Malapascua (thresher sharks) and as mentioned earlier, Cebu (whale sharks).

A short story about CCC:

CCC is an NGO based in the UK and has 2 operations in Montserrat, British Overseas Territory (Caribbean) and Sogod Bay, Philippines. They have been operating in the Philippines since 1995 and basically is an organisation that brings foreign tourists in the 'volunteer-tourism' structure to give back to the community and the environment; paying tourists will undertake courses such as Reef Check EcoDiver and use this skill to survey the reefs around the Marine Protected Area (MPA) and give this data to the local authority for them to use it freely. CCC also gives scholarship for the local Filipina youths to participate in the programme for free.

It was a great rural experience for me - at times where there is no water we had to go to the nearby spring with our buckets and showered there. If you are out too late into the sunset you will be feasted by mosquitoes for sure! The toilets are all bucket-flushed, the rooms are basic and each of us has a small fan next to our mosquito-netted bed There were chickens running around, CCC pet dog Coral.. such a sweetheart!

The best thing is, as we are situated right facing the Sogod Bay, we have the best view and the best reef right at our doorstep. Super healthy and highly diverse reef - also have a resident sea turtle here coming in now and then to say hi. When the weather is bad, the access to the water is not safe and the sea level can be quite high. Diving in the Philippines are very memorable, almost every dive I did there was one or two sea snakes sneaking in close to my bright black and yellow mask.

There was too many amazing creatures that I first time saw such as the fish that looks like a baby alligator (... I forgot what it is called!), grass eels, seahorses, ghost pipefish, and the blue ring octopus (super deadly!) found at the beach in which one of the local staff carried it in his palm running towards us to show us.. wow.

Do not underestimate Filipinos!

When Typhoon Haiyan hit in 2013, Tacloban is the worst hit and it was evidence through the watermark at the airport tower, demolished and damaged buildings. My taxi driver told me about how he lost his son during the catastrophic event and that he said he was lacerated and hurt from the debris especially from the detached zinc roof.

I stayed for a night at the best hostel, right in the centre of Tacloban. The beds are all covered with curtain for your privacy, and each bed has its own power socket and reading light. The verandah is nicely decorated and you kinda immediately felt like home upon entering this hostel. I would recommend this anytime - it may be tricky to find it at first but just look for the yellow door. Of course, the hostel is called 'Yellow Door Hostel'.

Manila is a big contrast to the beach life, where it is so busy and the traffic is insane. The Luzon state is most affected whenever the typhoon season is forecasted - and I even experienced a bit of the strong wind and heavy rain when I just stayed for a few days there! As it was a while back, I can't recall too much about the details of my stay in Manila but what I remember was the area of the hotel where we stayed had quite a polluted air. It was difficult to breath when we were walking at the side of the street from all the exhaust fumes. But I remember the following day when we head to the greenbelt part of the city, it was a lot easier to breath and the architecture is everything! Plenty of greens, sculptures and smart landscaping everywhere. With shiny, glossy restaurants, international brands and expensive cars roamed the city road, you can tell that this area is built for the elites, and tourists.

Contrary to popular believe, I was wrong when I thought everyone understands and speaks english when I was in the Philippines. I really thought that english is widely spoken everywhere but it is not true when I was there so it can get difficult to go around especially when you hopped into one of those classic jeepney. There is almost no map on the bus stop or times, you just have to try and read what is written on the bus and ask around.

I think that's it for now - a short reflection of the best summers I had in the Philippines. Thank you for the warmth memory and there is so much to see in the Philippines, I really hope to come back again soon.

Sige po! x