Lots of shenanigans were surely in the works when Jim invited our old Food Club group to the Philippines, initially for his wedding which was postponed, but the trip turned into an engagement party. I flew out with Greg and Brad, and we met up with Mario and Deb in Manila.
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| The view from Jim's apartment |
Manila is a huge, busy city with an interesting dichotomy of extreme wealth and acute poverty. Jim lives in a rich, modern part of the city, but driving around we could see how both sides live. We had a few days in manila before heading out to see the rest of the country, so it was great having a local to take us around. On our first day, Jim took us to Tagaytay to see Lake Taal.
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| Overlooking Volcano Island |
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| Relaxing in Tagaytay |
This is an interesting geologic feature since it is one of the few places in the world where you can see a third order island: an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island. Vulcan Point is within the Crater Lake on Volcano Island, which sits in Lake Taal on the island of Luzon. We spent a lovely afternoon hanging out lakeside before returning to the city and visiting Jim's club.
Yes, Jim is part owner in a nightclub. We stayed until around 2 or 3 in the morning, which was rough since the next morning we had a 6am flight to Coron, Palawan. It was bedlam getting to the airport - involving late night McDonald runs, drunken car-door slamming, missing hosts, and drunken passengers.
But we stumbled safely onto the water taxi (some of us still in our nightclub clothes), and took the ride to Sangat Island to the Sangat Island Dive Resort.
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| Our private villa (and private beach!) |
Ours was a beautiful bungalow at the far end of a private beach - to get there, you have to walk around to a little cove via a hanging footbridge past the limestone cliffs. The only other access is via kayak, so it was truly secluded! It had several rooms to house all of us, as well as hammocks and fake trees running through the open living area.
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| The view from the main resort to the boardwalk leading to our private cove! |
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| That's our private beach on the right! |
We had several days to wind down and relax in this paradise, and we took advantage of not just the diving and snorkeling, but the massages on the beach!
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| Getting our relaxation on! |
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| Glug... glug... glug... |
The thing to know about the Philippines is that their safety rules aren't necessarily the same as in the US - you don't need a certification to scuba dive. We actually went wreck diving even though several of us weren't certified. I'd had experience diving before but wasn't certified, but thought it would be fine since we had guides with us. My guide was actually horrible and accidentally turned off my air while I was underwater, so needless to say that was my last time diving... But I have to admit the wreck dive was fun and interesting, and I'm glad I persevered.
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| On the road back to the Coron airport |
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| Hangin' with the Donsol locals |
After a few days relaxing on on Sangat Island, we flew over to Donsol, on the far south of Luzon. It's a small but touristy town, built up because of the whale sharks that are in abundance in the Spring.
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| Ready for our shark swim...! |
We spent two nights in Donsol and during our full day in town, we hired a private guide to take us out to find whale sharks. Despite their name, whale sharks aren't whales, they're sharks - a type of fish. They're filter feeders, eating mostly plankton, and eat by slowly swimming with their mouths open.
To swim with the whale sharks, you need a guide. He or she sits on the top of a lookout and spots a whale - the driver then takes the boat on a trajectory slightly ahead of the whales, so that you can intercept it. When the whale comes close, the guide yells "SWIM!" and it's a mad scramble as everyone jumps out of the boat and starts swimming as fast as they can in the hope that the whale shark will swim under you.
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With just a disposable camera and cloudy water, on top of the pulse-pounding
excitement of swimming with these guys, it was hard getting good photos! |
Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean, with an average length of 20-30 feet - the largest known whale shark was over 60 feet long! This means that while they are leisurely floating along, I was swimming as hard and fast as I could (which isn't very fast). The whale sharks would slowly pass beneath us, almost close enough to touch, while we did our best to keep up. It's an awe-inspiring experience, showing the magnificence of these animals. But being in the water with these leviathans also brings home how small and inconsequential we truly are.
We had our boat hired for the entire afternoon, but after several marathons swimming like we were racing Michael Phelps in the Olympics, we were exhausted. Instead, we enjoyed having time on the boat - and I think our boat guides also have fun just relaxing instead of having to work!
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| At the Legazpi airport, in the shadow of the smoking Mayon Volcano |
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Deb and Mario, up to their
usual shenanigans |
Our final stop of the trip was to the resort island, Boracay. This tiny island, as far as I could tell, was exclusively for beach partying, water sports, and relaxation. The rest of Jim's guests met us on the island, and we spent three days playing and relaxing on the beach.
While I did love spending time on the island, it was a bit too touristy for me - the beaches are lined with large resorts and it was hard to find peace and quiet. Even so, it was undeniably beautiful.
Since we were with a group of volleyball players, we spent an afternoon playing 'Aces' on the beach.
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| Partying on the beach! |
Bye, Philippines! Thanks for a lovely time!
