Amores Gallos

(dated February 2)
Passed by this local ‘tourist sports complex’ during the day and found out that there was a ‘cock fight’ this evening. Cool! How could I miss a real cock fight?

We were probably the only ones who paid to enter, well, at least we got a ‘VIP’ seat. 2 minutes after sitting down, I realized that I was the only female in the audience (apart from the lady who was selling the drinks). Interesting. A sharp blade was tied to a foot of each rooster so as they fought, someone must get hurt. Geesh! It was brutal! Lots of blood, lots of feathers all over the arena. Everyone was shouting, screaming, cheering when placing his bet – a NYSE but Pilipino cockfight version ☺ (Well, of course I am not going to put down that I have been in contact with chicken when I return.)

Philippines: √

(dated February 8)
So another country ticked off on my list!

Nothing had changed since the Americans left, the jeepneys are probably the most prevailing reminisce of the Yankees, together with the tunes of The Carpenters and John Dever’s Country Road. Funny how the land is so nostalgic of the former imperialism. Probably also the reason that it did not progress as much as the other south east Asian economies. It has so much potential with its natural resources and people (they are all English speaking). They could have done so much more than just being overseas workers. Que pena!

6 a.m. tomorrow

(dated Feb 5-6, 2008)
So my camotes adventure continues. ‘6am tomorrow’ the answers we received every time when asking what time the earliest ferry was leaving the island. Crap! It was not so cool anymore if we were trapped here until 6am tomorrow. Apparently, our best bet was the 1am freight ferry going back to Cebu. Really sketchy about it leaving at 1am but there was really the only option. So this is how we killed the evening –watching 4 hours of local community basketball tournament. The first two hours were okay, but it went down from there, just unbearable (with final score of 101 vs. 58).

Finally, boarded the boat at 11:30pm. This is classic-a boat with 3 decks packed with bunk beds. So actually going to sleep my way to Cebu. Of course it turned out to be another sleepless night for me on the not-so-comfortable bed with melody of snoring from everyone on board, but it definitely topped my travel adventure (Overnight ferry/bunk beds: Check √ ). Felt that I was one of those writers of Lonely Planet, having gone through the roughest of the roughest. At least, by far, this is the cheapest day – nobody (I meant really no one) was trying to rip us off and didn’t have to haggle my way through everything: 10 peso for 2 hour jeepney rides, 150 pesos for the ferry (actually quite expensive for the local standard) and 200 peso for taxi back to Tambuli at 5am in the morning (amazingly, I saw the taxi meter for the first time in Philippines).

'my beach' at Camotes

(dated Feb 5, 2008)
Been searching for white sand beaches for the whole morning but it was nowhere to be seen. Started having doubt about what they said about Camotes – islands with unexploited white sand and beaches, so BS!!! There was only rocky coast with miles and miles of mangroves and local huts built of palm leaves surrounded by wild orchid (Seriously! There was orchid everywhere, it just grew like that, no greenhouse needed!) Yet, I still needed my white sand beach. It was 32 degree and the only, vaguely civilized place was this tiny little internet joint by the ferry dock. Decided to use my last resource – Googled ‘camotes white sand beach’ to continued my quest of white sand & beaches. So an hour of moped ride later through the corn fields and mangroves, I arrived at my ‘unexploited and white sand beach’ –natural palm trees, shallow water, and a small chapel at afar. So surreal. There was nobody, let alone tourists, just a few fishing canoes, and some local kids playing with ‘hairy crabs’. Had this adventurous excitement running through my blood, felt like I was Hernando de Magellanes, with the thrill of discovering new land for the first time. It’s really the ultimate getaway place. 2 hours of jeepney + 2 hours of refugee-like boat ferry + 1 hour of moped, it is all worth it.

p.s. To keep ‘my beach’ intact as it is, my travel buddy N and I agreed not to disclose the name of the place. Sure, call me a dork ☺

Ok? Ok!

(dated February 3)
‘Congratulations!’ Yes! I am officially an open water diver! How cool is that, with the title. Only took me 2 days to get the certificate. Did a few dives around Nalusuan Islands just off Mactan. Amazing!! As if I were inside the giant fish tank of an aquarium, all the sea creatures were there to put on a show for me. There was so much life down there – clown fish (the guy insisted on calling it ‘nemo’), stingrays, groupers, clam shells, thousands of colourful tropical fish (with names unknown) and of course miles of coral reef. Only wish I had a underwater camera that could go as deep as 18m to capture all these.