Tranquility and Chaos in northern Philippines

We arrived into Clark Airport in the Phillipines on Monday morning, on a Tiger airways flight with the tiniest amount of legroom you can imagine. Tiny just about sums up the amount of space given to you in all forms of public transport in the Philippines – the local average about 5 foot so we are giants in comparison!!

Anyway, Clark is kind of the Ryanair airport to Manila, i.e. 2 hours from the actual city in the middle of nowhere. So instead of booting it down to Manila immediately we decided to spend a few days relaxing and enjoying the nearest city – Angeles. Clark airport used to be a US military base until it was destroyed by the eruption of Pinatubo volcano in 1991, but there still remains a huge US presence – mostly drawn there for sex! Angeles is the sex capital of the Philippines, and is teeming with balding middle aged white men. I was the only white female in the town the whole time we were there, and needless to say I got a lot of attention!! Most of it was curiosity I think, and being the attention lover that I am, I was relishing – Mark wasn’t too pleased though!! He looked like my bodyguard the whole time we were there.

We lived in luxury for our first two days, deciding to treat ourselves to an expensive hotel (well expensive by Filipino standards – about €25 a night) which had room service, mini bar, satellite TV and broadband! It meant we hardly wanted to leave the hotel at all and face the seedy city before us. However, we did venture out to see the most famous, yet undiscovered, site in the area – Mount Pinatuno. As I said above, the volcano erupted in 1991 causing the second biggest volcanic explosion in the last 100 years…anyone remember the summer of 1991 being exceptionally cold??? That’s why! Anyway, the eruption blew the top right off the mountain and left a beautiful crater in the middle. We hired a driver and guide to take us to the crater. About an hour outside the crazy chaotic city, you begin to enter the most beautiful countryside, little villages brimming with happy people, who live in tiny shacks but wear pristine clothes and always smile. And buffalos and small farms and amazing mountains! For a further hour, we had to drive through the valleys left by the volcano – valleys of soot and ash and running water. Once the 4WD could go no further we had to get out with the guide (who spoke no English) and continue another 3 hours through these valleys til we got to the crater. Knowing we were going on a long hike, Mark and I sensibly decided to wear hiking boots – 30 seconds into the trek these were saturated. I then cleverly decided to change into my flip flops – 10 minutes later, these were split in two, so our kind guide took off his own flip flops to give to me and did the trek barefoot! Ah, but they’re hardy out here!!

Anyway, when we got to the top, it was all worth it. I’m not exaggerating when I say it is probably the most beautiful site I have ever seen in my life. It really does take your breath away. The photos probably don’t do it justice, but the two of us were totally taken aback by what stood before us. The fact that it is still relatively untouristed also added to the charm. The day we went up, only another 4 tourists went up later in the day! The crater has been filled in the calmest deepest green water (made green by the sulpher) and is surrounded by beautiful mountains and cliffs. It is so peaceful there, no life, no sounds, just us!!We headed down to the chaos of Manila on Wednesday. We had heard that Manila was a shit hole and not to spend any time there if we could avoid it, so we were surprised to find quite a nice city…hidden among slums and desperate poverty! The Philippines in general is very influenced by the US and Spain, having been colonised by both. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Mexico – although Mexico is not as poor. Manila has a definite Spanish feel to it, especially Istramorous, the old city, which is where the Spanish resided during their rein. It has a huge fort – Fort Santiago, which is very medieval, and like something you’d see in a European city. The history to go along with it is also very interesting. Also in Istramorous is the oldest church in Manila, which again is heavily influenced by Spain and the rest of Europe. The Philippines is a devout Cathloic country (despite its huge sex trade) and this is evident everywhere. Poor Mark was quite freaked out by the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart protecting us in our room in Manila…but then he better get used to that for living in Ireland. I don’t think many unmarried couples travel together here either, cos everybody just assumes we’re husband and wife!! At this stage, its easier just to go along with it! Oh and double beds are referred to as ‘matrimonial beds’!!

Besides the old town, the long Roxas boulevard which goes down along the coast, and the lovely breezy Rizal Park, the rest of Manila is pretty much one giant slum. The poverty here is shocking – there are street children everywhere. Seeing this really did have an effect on me, you feel so helpless. However, saying that, most of them do seem happy. Filipinos really are a chirpy happy bunch who seem content with their lot! I noticed a huge contrast though, in both Angeles City and Manila, all along the streets you have people selling stuff out of hovels, triclycles and jeepneys tearing up and down the streets, pure chaos, then you cross the road into a shopping mall, and you are in the massivest, most futuristic shopping centres you could imagine – bigger and better than anything we have at home! It’s like literally crossing the street from the third world into the first world!!

Friday was our ‘disaster day’. You have them once every now and then, and I imagine while backpacking we’ll have a few more!! Its just a day where everything from when you get up in the morning til you go to bed, goes wrong!!! We decided we wanted to see the Taal volcano, which is famous for being a lake within a volcano, within an island, within a lake…or something like that. As Mark’s knee caved in on the last trek, we decided not to tackle climbing, just to go to the viewing point. We could have done this on a tour for about €60 each, but decided to save our pesos as you could do it ten times cheaper on your own (and we are backpackers), so we got directions from the tourist office to the bus station. Got to about three bus stations, each one telling us we needed to go to another one, so an hour and a half after leaving the guesthouse, and walking through the dirtiest streets and markets, filled with vermin and waste, we got to the right bus…which wasn’t leaving for another hour!! Got off the bus in Tagatay, and it started to rain!! I then had to face my massive motorbike fear, as the only transport to the lookout was a tricycle (this is a moped with a sidecar attached). I know they are tiny and can only go about 40km an hour, but I was still petrified and nearly clawed my way through Mark’s shoulder throughout the 20 minute journey. Got to the lookout, the rain had got so bad that we could barely even see in front of us. The visitor centre is closed for renovations, so we spent two hours under a picnic table umbrella watching Korean tourists eat a picnic! Oh we did treat ourselves to a bag of crisps, but Mark had an allergic reaction to these and was sick for the rest of the day!! The rain did eventually clear up and the view was spectacular, so we stayed to take a few photos (which didn’t come out great) and headed back to Manila. We got a local bus back to Manila, which instead of air-con leaves the windows and doors open and squashes three into a seat we’d normally have for two, so we were choking on exhaust fumes by the time we got back!! Having had enough of Manila we decided just to collect our bags from the guesthouse and head down the coast as quick as we could. Got an even squishier bus to the port town of Batangas, arriving in at 7.30pm (at this stage we’d spent nearly 8 hours of our day on buses) to be told the last ferry to Puerto Galera had left, and our only option was to either hire an expensive private boat or get a ferry to the town of Calapan which is two hours from where we wanted to go, so we chose the cheaper option. We were the only whites on the ferry. The national obsession in the Philippines is karaoke, even in the poorest little villages, there is karaoke bars everywhere, and every café, shop, etc has a machine, so we were entertained the whole way by the marvellous sound of Filipino wailing. Sounded worse than a really bad Eurovision! I would have taken a photo of the look of pain on Mark’s face had I been brave enough!! When we got into the island port, our only option to get to the tourist resorts was to get a private jeepney to take us all the way there (and pay them €20!), so we had to that, and finally arrived at our destination grumpy, exhausted and covered in two inches of grime and dirt at 12.30am!! I also forgot to mention that Mark’s rucksack had been broken by the nice airport staff, and this trip truly buggered it so that none of the straps worked and it had to be carried over his head at all stages!! As you can imagine we were a truly happy pair greeting the hotel staff at that time of night. On the plus side (there’s always a plus side) our apartment in Sabang Beach is amazing, but I will tell you about in the next blog, and we did get to sample all forms of Filipino transport in one very long day!!

Now its off to soak up the rays on these idyllic paradise islands!!