Oct 2006

Seeing that we had all come to Panglao Island to do some serious diving, we were all excited to go looking for diveshops the next morning. After shopping around, we found a few really good deals. However, seeing that we lived right above a diveshop, the simplest was to utilize them, and that's what we did. We ended with sweet deal, which included a dive course for Pouya as well as a few fun dives for Mahta and Haakon.

We're not going to write a day by day blog about Panglao Island and our experiences there, but we'll tell you about a few nice occasions. Since the diveshop had a small bar/restaurant in it we became really good friends with all the local Philippino workers as well as a super nice British Guy named Mike and they took us in like we were family. Mike is a dive master in training and lives for the time being in Panglao. Say hi Mike!!

Basically every night we were there, we were either drinking San Miguel, Tuba (local coconut booze) or the local Tanduay Rum and laughing at some stupid joke one of us would crack. It was so great that we stayed there for 8 nights which was not what we had expected when we had first arrived!!

Among a bunch of great times we had two really nice evenings at Mike's newly acquired home (he found a sweet place while we were there). The first time we had a delicious bbq (SO nice to have helped cook a meal after so many months of being served our food with no say in what goes in it!) with chicken, steak, garlic bread, pasta and copious amount of booze.

In other words we had all the ingredients for a killer night. And a killer night it was. In fact, it was so good for some of us that Mike woke up on the floor right besides the couch.. HA HA

The second event at Mike's pad was just as good, if not better. A bunch of the Philipino guys from the dive shop came up and we had a HUGE feast. We were about 20 people and we all had booze, food and coconut wine. Good shit!!!

Another night Pouya and Haakon went drinking with the guys while Mahta was sick in bed. One of the guys at the dive shop was turning 20 and in true Philipino tradition, they have a party. Unfortuynately, Pouya and Haakon arrived a bit late, so the dinner was finished, but no problem. See, in the Philippines, it's rude to serve your guests booze before they eat, so the host/birthday boy runs out of the house down the street and buys the most delicious BBQ'ed chicken. These guys are unreal!! He actually left to go buy us food and it was his birthday!! We obviously didn't know it until he had come back and asked us to come inside for some food. Unreal. The Philipino's hospitality is something else. Anyways, we eat this chicken, which by the way was the juciest, most succulent chicken we have ever tasted. Didn't even know it was possible to make chicken this good. The skin was soft, yet crispy with a smooth bbq sauce on it, while the meat was tender and juicy. Mmmmm, We still have dreams it. We later find out the it had been bbq'ed over charcoal (on one of those turny thingies you see in the store) and injected with a special sauce before cooking in order to remain juicy.. WOW.. Damn, that's a lot of talk about chicken, can you tell we are yummy-food-deprived? Ok back to the story. After enjoying this superb chicken, we venture outside again where 15 or so Philipino's and Mike were sitting drinking. And when I say drinking, I don't mean no Western-style-drinking. Oh no, this is an art. First you have a simple communal glass which is used for the cocnut wine. Its a large, but not too large milk glass. Then one person is responsible for filling up the glass for so to pass it a person who downs the whole thing. He then passes the glass back for refill before the person besidehim downs a glass. HA HA. What an incredibly social way of drinking. It was awesome. We all ended up on quite the bender and at 12 o'clock we headed out for the local "disco". See, every saturday, they fence off the local basketball court, turn up the music and have a jam. We had bought ourselves (ie the 15 Philippino's and us) and table with a case of beer. Good times. Pouya and Haakon eventually made it home in the early hours in the morning, while Mike passed out on his floor...

The last story I will tell you guys is one about cocks. Yes, it's about cocks, but let me tell you, this is no porn.. That's right, we went cockfighing. A few of the guys at the dive shop found out that we wanted to go to a cock fight, so we all planned to go one Sunday afternoon. We all piled into the diveshop's car and headed for the cockfighting arena around 3 in the afternoon. What a sight.

They had an organized fighting rink with 300 or so Philipino guys watching two cocks beat the living shit out of each other and slicing throats. People were yelling, money was flying (you make bets on the cocks) and birds were everywhere. After watching a match we started making bets. Seeing that our knowledge of a good cock is fairly limited, it was pretty much a 50-50 game. We ended up winning a few and loosing a few, but it was wicked fun. The cocks have razors tied to the legs and will fight until one has killed the other. We should really start this shit back home. Good fun.

Oh, we also had a nice day trip to a place called Chocolate Hills. They are huge mounds created by some screwed up ecological phenomenom. Kinda cool.

And we got to see the world's smallest monkey - The Tarsier.

There are many more stories to tell from our stay in Panglao, but I think this will do for now. After an amazing week, we finally left ur dive shop and said goodbye to a lot of really nice people before heading for Malaysia

All in all, the Philippines had treated us like kings. The people here are by far the friendliest bunch we have ever met, the food is good, beer is cheap and everything is taken with a smile.

After a few hot and sticky days in Manila with no electricity or running water, we were getting frustrated and couldn't wait to head to the beaches. Just had to wait one more day to pick up Pouya, Mahta's brother, from the airport and get the hell out. So, we left Manila for what we thought would be a beautiful and happening place called White Beach in Puerto Gallera. Wow, were we ever in for a surprise! We arrived at a dead place with 20 Korean tourists, 3 non-Koreans, about 50 lady boys who were infatuated with Pouya and Haakon, a very non-white beach with huge un-surf-able waves, and an approaching typhoon. YAY, lucky us! We spent countless hours on buses, ferries, tricycles and jeepneys for this?

We were already looking forward to our next destination when we suddenly noticed just how cheap alcohol was and we were able to drink our sorrows away with Erlend, the Norwegian we had met earlier in Manila, and Tanduay, the Philipino rum that is ever so sweet and cheap (2L bottle of coke = $1.20; 1L bottle of Tanduay = $0.70)!!

Check out what we found in our frozen water bottle we bought from the store, hahaha we promise we had nothing to do with it!!

Two days later we were on the road again hoping to find better waters and maybe even a nice atmosphere..!?! And we were succesful! After a Jeepney, boat and tricycle ride and some walking we arrived at a beautiful island called Boracay. Boracay is thee tourist destination in the Philippines and we were happy to be tourists for a little while.

Our time in Boracay was made even more enjoyable because of two really nice Pinoys named Marlon and Caps...

they were so nice and hospitable towards us that our time there would not have been the same without them! We had a great night drinking till the wee hours of the morning and they even invited us for a home-made meal the following day! This is where our love for the Philippines and its people began to flourish.

After a few lazy days at Boracay we left for what ended up being a 36 hour journey to the island of Panglao. It was a journey like no other. So first we took a tricycle from the beach to the pier,

then we took a boat to "mainland" which was just another island - but a little bigger, then we took a jeepney for 3 hours to a bigger city, then we took a freezing cold A/C bus for another 4 hours to an even BIGGER city! Here it got a little complicated, we didn't have a map of the city and we weren't quite sure which pier we had to catch our ferry from. After some asking around, we figured we had to take two jeepneys. Lovely!! You have to understand how uncomfortable these things become when the novelty has worn off: there is little or basically no space to move while you're cuddling your backpack, there are stinky armpits everywhere - actually to be honest we were the stinkiest people around, and sore asses made for a few very uncomfortable rides. So, we got off the first jeepney, grab a bite to eat, catch our next jeepney and get dropped off at the wrong pier! OH NO!
Jeepney:

Our boat was leaving in half an hour and there was only one boat that day! Gotta make it! Luckily though our ferry left from a pier not too far away, so on we went to another jeepney (3 in a row! Must be some sort of a record!) which got us to the right place.... Oooooh, hope there are tickets left! And yes there were seats, actually so many seat that we could even choose what class of ticket we wanted...of course we opted for good old, trustworthy "economy class." This was to be our home for the next 14 hours. Mahta, the world champion sleeping machine, had no trouble getting in some 12 hours of sleep. Haakon and Pouya on the other hand were a bit restless and began wandering the ship for some fun and adventure. They were quite content when they ended up at the rooftop bar with a dozen of army guys singing Philipino karaoke songs and drinking lots of Red Horse which is the Philippines strongest beer!! Nobody really knows what happened on this rooftop bar, bu we think it involved singing Tagalog (name of the national language) while 20 army guys where clapping.

After this eventful ferry ride, we still had more traveling to do! Another 3 hour boat ride, some waiting around followed by a 3 hour super-cramped bus ride and we had FINALLY arrived at the island of Panglao! At first, we were quite angry with ourselves for spending all that time and money to get to there amd it just didn't seem like a nice place at all!! Our hotel search was disasterous, prices were high and quality was ultra low. What did we get ourselves into? We finally settled at a nice place called Underwater Divers with a super friendly staff, always a bonus!

Hey all,

It's been about three weeks since our last update, and let me tell you, we have had a pretty good time.

We flew from Kuala Lumpur early in the morning late September to Clark airport in a city outside of Manila. We woke up at 3.30 (ie in the middle of the night) in order to have enough time to make our 7.45 flight. The trip to the airport was ok, but we were super tired and by the time we had checked in, our bellies were asking for some food. Guess what happens?? Remember our earlier rant about eating McDonalds in the morning... and how much it sucks?? Well, it happened again!! We had a choice between Malay food (ie. rice and stew) or McDonalds. You can imagine how shitty the other food looked like, cuz we ended up with McDonalds... We won't bore you with shitty details, but... It sucked. Do'oh!!!

Anyways, our flight to Manila was fairly uneventful but finally landed around noon local time. Seeing that our flight didn't land in Manila, but rather in the cheap airport in a city called Angeles, meant we had a 3 hours bus ride to get to the city. 3 hours may sound like a fair amount, but by now, 3 hours feel like a quiet travel day. It's really weird how time "changes" when you're travelling..

Now, this is where the fun starts. By the time we reach Manila it had started raining and seeing that we were both really tired from the early start, the prospect of a nice cozy place to stay sounded fantastic. As the bus dropped us off in a shabby part of town, we jump on the subway, and finally, after being denied access on the fist subway due to our huge backpacks, got to a "nicer" area of town. By this time the rain has intensified and the non-existent sun has set already. We do however end up finding a decent, yet pricy hotel a 15 minute walk from the subway station. We didn't really like the place, but because of the rain, we figured we'd take it for the night.

The evening was pretty quiet as the rain just kept pouring down and most people stayed at home. No worries right, the rain will stop by tomorrow.. HA HA, when we wake up next morning, the rain had doubled in strength and the gusts of wind were shaking the whole building. Oh shit.. As mentioned earlier, the place we stayed at was not the coziest hotel, so we packed up, put on our raincoats and moved in to another place called "Friendly's Guest House" which was literary just across the street. The guesthouse was on the fourth floor, with a perfect view of the surrounding areas, and by the time we had put our bags down we could see how the winds were getting stronger and stronger. Nice... After a chat with some of the other people staying there, we find out that we have arrived just in time for a typhoon and the authorities projected it to reach full force around noon that day. (it is around 10 in the morning). Ok, no worries right. But here's the bitch of it all.. We had absolutley ZERO money, had not eaten breakfast and were starting to get really hungry. So what to do?? Yeah that's right, we have to go to the bank. WTF MATE!?!? There's a typhoon going on and we have to battle our way to the bank.

We bundle up, put our travellers cheques in a plastic bag and head outside. Damn.. It was pouring down, the gusts were throwing us around and signs and trees had started falling down all over the place. We were not going far, but it was absolutely crazy. At times we had to take shelter by the side of the road, as we were scared of getting decapitated by a flying branch or road sign. The wind was so strong at time that we could not move forward, and when we'd look up, we would get hit in the face by what felt like small water projectiles. Anyways, it took us about 10 minutes to walk the 500 metres to the bank and we are super excited to get there. Well, tough luck. The DAMN bank is closed due to inclement weather. What the hell... What do you mean bad weather!! ha ha. We are retards.. Of course it was going to be closed, there's a bloody typhoon going on and everyone but us knew about it from before. Oh well. The scene however, was unreal. Right outside the bank, a huge tree (about 5 foot diameter) had fallen across the road while this group of homeless kids were huddled under a roof across the street. We felt so bad for them. They were wet, cold and probably scared shitless. Just wanted to take them home...

The way back to the guesthouse (GH) was just as bad as our journey to the bank. Shit was flying everywhere and the 20 or so trees that were in a park right by our GH were all torn out of the ground. And remember, this is at 10.30 ish in the morning. The typhoon is not supposed to reach full strength for another hour or two.

We finally make it back upstairs at the guest house and explain to the owner that he's shit out of luck for money. No worries though. The owner, a Philipino named Benji, turns out to be super cool and tells us that we can pay later and that he has noodles if we are hungry.

For the next 4 hours or so, we do nothing but watch the typhoon. Roofs started tearing apart, huge metal plates were being thrown around, trees were breaking and streets flooded. It was unlike anything we've ever seen. The typhoon was just toying with the city. At one point, the roof of our old hotel across the street started tearing apart and a 2 metre long opening appeared. It was absolutely mental. We were doing great though. By this time, Benji had given us noodles, we had changed our clothes and Haakon had started drinking San Miguel (local beer). What else to do during a storm than get drunk, right? It sounds really bad, and it was really bad, however, to us it was like watching a movie. It turns out the the typhoon, named Typhoon Millenium was the strongest to hit Manilla in 11 years. The gusts reached 230 km/h and 20-30 people died. Afterwards, the typhoon hit Vietnam and China, where several hundred people were killed. What a way to start our trip in the Philippines.

Due to all the trees that had been knocked over, the whole city had lost power as power lines were cut. It was soo weird.. Manilla is a place that is never quiet, but the whole evening was absolutely dead.
Seeing that our guesthouse was not a 5 star hotel, there were no generators, which meant no power, no fans and no AC. It may sound really bad, but it was actually kinda cool. We got to know everyone that were staying there really well and it created a kind of cabin feeling.

By late afternoon the typhoon had died down and we could finally venture outside again. We had met this super nice American girl, Mary, who was nice enough to lend us some money, so we went out for some late night food and sheesha. It was really weird and scary though. Only a few places that had generators had lights on, there were trees, sheets of metal, garbage and shop signs dumped all over the streets and there was barely anyone outside. Really a surreal setting. Anyhow, we found a small Korean place that was still open and sat down for dinner, Mahta, Haakon, the American girl and a Norwegian guy named Erlend. The food was so so, but again, the setting was awesome. When I think back on the fact that we sat in a small Korean Restaurant, having a candle lit dinner while the city outside was destroyed, I feel like we were in some sort of screwed up movie. I think it'll forever be one of those nights we'll never forget. We ended the evening with sheesha in a cozy arabic place drinking COLD beer that we had just bought from one of the few shops that had generators. What a day!!!!

After a really hot a sticky night (remember we had no power), we woke up in the morning just to find out that we now had run out of water as well.. YEAH. See, we were on the fourth floor, and with no power, the pump that transports the water from ground level and up was not working, and the tanks on the roof were empty. HE HE.. The people at the guesthouse were really cool though. One poor soul had to run up and down with buckets so that the guests could take cold bucket showers. He he interesting when there are 20 people staying there. We spent the day mostly looking around our little area call Malate. The Typhoon had caused quite the havoc around town, so we decided that sightseeing would not be the best idea. It was however a pretty nice and relaxing day.

It was not until our third day in Manilla we decided that it was time to go back to our roots and start sightseeing. We walked all around town partially looking at all the sights and partially looking at all the destruction.

Check out this perfect "cartoon" looking well

In the evening, our guesthouse owner had what is known as a wine night. In simple terms this means that he buys a bunch of wine and the guests get to drink free wine. What a place guys!!! Anyhow, we had an evening with free wine, before, Haakon left Mahta behind and went drinking with a German dude. We found a street cafe in a popular bar street and had 50 cent beers all night. It was a pretty good night, besides the plate of liver we were served. See, at one point, we went to the grill to find some food, but didn't really see anything we liked. However, ten mintues later, we are served this plate of what looks like some really weird chicken. At that point it was all too late to give it back, so we ate it only to find out it was liver half way through. "Oh well" we said and finished the plate.