The Philippines, Diving, Sea and Sun

It is a country where one can still find some off the beaten track places, even if it is becoming harder. We ended up in some amazing locations where very few tourists were such as port barton or the north of the country near Sagada. I love that sensation of discovery you get when you are the only tourists with locals. Although it is obviously just an impression as there are numerous entries in the lonely planet.We met quite a few people compared to the first three countries, a lot of French but also AMericans, English and mainly Europeans in general.

 

To summarise a whole month is quite a hard task, and I pondered a long time over what I should write, I didnt want it to be a long list of the places we had been to. So here are the highlights. Diving was one of the main reasons we came to the Philippines and we did it well. Despite the fact that a lot of people told us that « it was better before » , there is a lot to see underwater, here are the main fours locations :

 

• Apo Island, south of Negros Island, is a protected marine reserve. A typhoon destroyed the north side of the island where there wasn’t much, unfortunately it also destroyed all the corals and the fauna that lived there. Depsite this, the corals remains absolutely incredible, gardens Under the sea and a paradise for turtles.
• Coron and its surroundings : three wonderful dives, two wrecks from the second world war, and a lake , half salted/half fresh water. The water at the bottom of the lake is 38 degrees, which seems lovely but actually is rather unpleasant. Incredible visibility and fascinating to swim around even if there is not much life apart from tiny schrimps and cat fish. Last time I dived in a lake it was in Iceland at -1 dgrees and very different conditions.
• Malapascua , north of Cebu Island, to see thresher sharks. One of the only places in the world where you can observe them at -30 metres, very early in the morning. It is a very long and majestic shark.  We saw two and it was a magical moment.
• Moalboal, which was not my first choice, but ended up being rather incredible. Schools of sardines only 20 m away from the beach, we ended up swimming with them, absolutely brilliant.

 

About the philippines : At the start of our trip, we met a 64 year old English man, married to a philippino woman and who had been living there for a few years. His wife runs the B&B where we stopped. He still works and offers activities such as diving, treks etc.. We spent a whole day with him diving, so we had quite a while to chat. Usually when people are judgemental with the elocals we take everything said with a pinch of salt. Kevin explains that locals do not understand what « business » means. And that anyone coming from a developped country would actually be extremely successful instantly. We very quickly understood why he would think this. Every time we tried to book hotels, organise trips, or even order food, there was little to no response. There is no « selling » done by any of them. If they are here they might be sleeping, eating or singing (karaoké and Celine Dion are very big there), but in any case, you do feel that you bother them. They dont really understand what service means, or at least as it is expected in Europe.

It is quite funny to observe once you have overcome your frustration. There is nearly a refreshing side to all this. You know that their work is not the main part of their life or day. They consider that they have enough money therefore they are not going to run after more. We had a similar experience in Sri Lanka. Their life is mainly about their families, their friends, their communities. On the spot, it did bother me a few times, but then you think and wonder if there is not something there. Maybe we could find a happy middle between their life and ours.

Last thing, the very little knowledge that people had outside of their countries. When we arrived in Cebu, the taxi driver who took us from the airport started asking questions (mainly to Alex, as you know...he is a man :) ) about what he should do with his life, where should he work etc… The first place he mentions is Dubai. He talks about it with stars in his eyes, so I couldn’t help but intervene and tell him that Dubai was no Eldorado, especially for people that will end up working in the sun for hours and live in poor conditions. I have to say, when we were chatting I really wanted him to know that it was not all perfect, because a lot of Philippinos and Indians who end up in Dubai think it is this wonderful place. But then I felt a bit out of place, because I have no idea what this man’s life is, and if it actually wouldn’t be much better for him to live there. Maybe it is the chance of his life.  Anyway, thikning about it I felt stupid. The French who has been well fed, loved and cared for all her life and who give lessons to underprivileged people. Once we finished chatting, he asked where we are from, we tell him and he concludes that we are rich as we come from rich countries. We explain to him that we have saved money for a few years etc… but there are many people richer or poorer than us in both our countries ;  we shattered his illusions:

 « there are poor people in England ???!? »

It was a completely new notion to him that in our countries people can actually be poor too. I didn’t think so much before about the perception the countries we visit have of us, but I didn’t think we would be ONLY rich. If they knew…Anyway, I think he will definitely remember us…