Tej Turner

Travelblog#40: The Visayas Part 3 (Tablas & Romblon) – the Philippines

1^st-3^rd February, 2015

Getting to Romblon Island was a bit more of an ordeal than I thought it would be. On the map it appeared to be only a short distance away, but when one is at the mercy of public transport you are often forced to take a route very different to how the crow would fly.

But, as far as transit days go, the journey from Boracay to Romblon was a fairly enjoyable one. It began – as it so often does in the Philippines – with a boat, sailing north, to an island called Tablas.

Tablas Island

We were dropped off at a town called Odiongan, and a friendly local who was queuing with us when we were alighting pointed us in the right direction. Less than an hour later, we were aboard a rickety jeepney making its way along a wonderful coastal road and then through some of Tablas’s rugged, mountainous interior.

By the time we reached San Augustin – a little port town on the eastern coast – we had already missed the last public boat to Romblon Island so we thought we were going to have to stay the night. This would have been far from a disaster, as it seemed like a charming and quaint place, but by some stroke of fate there just happened to be a small cargo ship about to leave, which offered us passage. I took it as a sign and got on.

It was possibly one of the rockiest sea journeys that I have ever taken, but that just made it all that more exciting. Well, for me at least. James – who suffers from sea-sickness – wasn’t so impressed. He and Pedro took shelter down in the hull while Chloe and I went up onto the top deck, where we held on tightly to door frames, ropes, handles, whatever we could grab, and watched the captain navigate his way through the waves as water splashed over the bow.

Romblon Island

Just over an hour later we arrived in Romblon. It was approaching evening by that point so we didn’t waste any time and chartered a tricycle to take us to San Pedro Beach Resort, which had a collection of lovely beach cottages perched over the rocks. We arrived there just in time to catch an amazing sight of the sun setting over the silhouette of Tablas Island.

The following day we hired out motorcycles so we could do a loop around Romblon.

It took us about five hours, in all, and that was including plenty of stops along the way to take photos of Romblon’s lovely coastline. A particular highlight for me was the the lighthouse on the eastern side – the lighthouse itself, was pretty naff, but it was surrounded by green hills, had a sandy beach, and there was a small island just offshore.

Lots of the villages dotted around Romblon are populated by miners and crafters of marble; a resource which is plentiful across the island, and for which it is famous for across the Philippines. Many of the workshops we passed had such impressive works-in-progress we felt compelled to stop and admire them for a while.

We finished the day off with a quick walk around Romblon Town. The first thing I saw when we drove in was an old church built from stone which looked nice but was unfortunately locked so I couldn’t get inside. We also walked up the hill to have a look at San Andres Fort, which wasn’t all too impressive in its structure but had a great panoramic view of the town – a few young couples were sat on benches, staring out at the bay, and there was a wonderful atmosphere there.

The next morning we took a quick trip to Bon Bon beach just before Pedro and I had to hand the bikes back in, but unfortunately we couldn’t cross the sandbar to reach the nearby Cobrador Island because the tide was too high. I went snorkelling around the reefs near San Pedro Beach Resort and saw a turtle, a massive school of millions of tiny fish, and a bright purple boxfish. I also got stung quite badly by a jellyfish, so I was forced to come back to shore and apply lots of vinegar to my arm. I spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in a hammock.

For more photos from Romblon Island, click here. One of the photos from this blog was kindly donated to me by Chloe.

To read the other parts of my time in the Visayas, click on the following links: Part 1 (Bohol & Siquijor), Part 2 (Apo Island, Dumaguette & Boracay), Part 4 (Sibuyan Island)

Travelblog#39: The Visayas Part 2 (Apo Island, Dumaguete & Boracay) – the Philippines

25^th-31^st January, 2015

For Part 1 of our time in the Visayas, click here.

Apo Island

Apo Island is only one and a half kilometers long and seven hundred meters wide, a tiny dot in the hundreds of islands dotted across the Visayan Sea, but it sparked upon on the tourism radar a few years ago, and there is one particular reason for this:

James, Chloe, Jody (my three travelling companions), and I arrived there in the afternoon and, after quickly checking-in to our rooms at Liberty Lodge, we were eager to jump into the ocean. The first thing I saw when I put my head under the surface was a banded sea snake swimming up to get a breath of air. I watched it, but maintained a wary distance, remembering being told by someone once that they are poisonous.

Shortly after, I saw my first green turtle – one did not have to go very far: the four of us merely swam in the shallows that afternoon and we found five of them, all munching away at the algae growing upon the seabed.

James and I ventured out a bit further out the next day and found some very beautiful coral gardens, but we were unfortunately not allowed to go into the Marine Park as it has been closed off for a few years after the damage it suffered during the typhoon which occurred in 2013.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the island’s hilly interior and discovered that there was much more to appreciate about Apo than its turtles: we found other gorgeous beaches, a mangrove forest, and a couple of charming villages.

Dumaguete

Dumaguete has a young and hip vibe, for a Filipino town, which is probably due to its large student population. We stayed at backpackers’ guest house called Harold’s Mansion and decided to go on a day trip to Twin Lakes.

The road there was windy and steep, and our tricycle driver struggled at times, so we occasionally had to jump off and walk parts of it. Aggressive hable-hable drivers trailed us for over an hour, trying to get us to jump onto the back of their bikes for the rest journey, but we told them that we didn’t mind walking. Their persistent pestering only fuelled our determination to not give in. The views, along the way, were fantastic.

We eventually reached the park headquarters, and ate a quick lunch at a café before we made our way down to the lakeside.

We discovered that it was actually quite cheap to be taken out on a boat for a couple of hours, so we hopped on and our boatman rowed us to a waterfall on the other side which was surrounded by jungle and had clear waters. We were also taken to the nearby Danao lake, Balinsasayo’s twin, which was very picturesque.

The couple of days which followed were spent mostly on buses. We made our way across the mountains of Negros and over-nighted at a town called Bacolod before we caught a boat out the next morning to reach Panay. After another day on a bus we reached the port of Caticlan, where we caught one last final boat to Boracay.

Boracay

Often when places become famous destinations, as frustrating as all the things which come with its fame (such as inflated prices, hassle from the locals, and overcrowding), one can usually scratch beyond the surface and see why these places are popular.

But sometimes, you really can’t.

I have seen much better beaches – whiter sands, calmer waters, and much, much better scenery – and I didn’t even bother snorkelling, because even the travel guide admits that it is a bit naff. We spent three days in Boracay, in all, and I can honestly say that I still don’t have a clue why so many people go there. If you want a short, uneventful holiday, on a mediocre tropical beach, where you’ll mostly meet the same kind of people you would in bars back at home, while enjoying all the comforts of the western world such as McDonalds, pool tables, shopping malls and swimming pools, you might have a good time, but if you’re quite well travelled you will probably find Boracay extremely underwhelming. The only reason the four of us stayed there was because it was conveniently placed by Kalibo airport and Jody was just about to fly home. She is being replaced by another friend of ours – Pedro – who will be accompanying James, Chloe, and I for the rest of our time in the Philippines.

After an evening of drinks to say farewell to Jody and welcome Pedro, we left the following morning.

More photos from Apo Island and Dumaguete can be found on my Flickr account. Underwater photos from this blog were donated to me by James and Chloe. James also owns a DSLR and he has his own photography website which is worth a browse.

To read the other parts of my time in the Visayas, click on the following links: Part 1 (Bohol & Siquijor), Part 3 (Tablas & Romblon), Part 4 (Sibuyan Island)

Travelblog#38: The Visayas Part 1 (Bohol & Siquijor) – the Philippines

19^th-24^th January, 2015

After ten days spent in pretty but a little bit too touristy Palawan, it was time to move on. Me and my three companions – James, Chloe and Jody – boarded a plane. Our next destination was the Visayas; an archipelago of scattered islands which, due to its geographically central location and rich diversity, many consider to be the very heart of the Philippines.

Our plane touched down in Cebu. It was a smoggy, concrete-grey metropolis, and there didn’t seem to be any noteworthy attractions, so we caught a taxi straight to the pier and boarded a boat heading to Bohol.

Bohol Island

Most of the visitors to this island head straight to the beach in Panglao, for but the four of us had already spent much of the previous couple of weeks visiting various islands and lagoons, so we were in the mood for something a little less nautical. We stayed in a guesthouse called Nuts Huts near a village called Loboc. It was surrounded by jungle so it was swarming with mosquitoes, but all the noises of wildlife rustling around at night and the decked out restaurant area overlooking Loboc River, more than made up for that.

Our first outing during our stay there was to the nearby Tarsier Sanctuary, where I got reacquainted with the miniature primates I saw in the wild when I visited Tangkoko National Park a couple of months ago. These ones were a little bit smaller than their Sulawesian cousins and, because it was day rather than night, they were sleeping, which made them even more cute.

We also made a day trip to the Chocolate Hills, a geological oddity in Bohol’s interior: over a thousand almost identical hillocks which were formed by ancient reefs being lifted up from the seabed by tectonic activity. They are called the Chocolate Hills because in the dry season the grasses turn brown.

On our way back that day we also made a trip to the Simply Butterflies Conservation Centre in a village called Bilar. It wasn’t quite as good as the butterfly garden we had visited in Palawan a few days before, as the guides mostly relied upon little gimmicks like attaching docile butterflies to your face and telling jokes, rather than telling you much about science of the creatures.

Loboc itself was a quaint little village, and it has one of the oldest churches in the Philippines; San Pedro, which was severely damaged by an earthquake over a year ago.

Between being driven around all these various attractions during our stay we were treated to very pleasant views of Bohol’s rugged interior of forests, hills, and rice paddies.

On our final night there it was my birthday, so I celebrated with a bottle of wine.

Siquijor Island

After paying a boat fare which should be considered a crime (OceanJet are the only carrier who do a service between the two islands and, boy, don’t they know it), we arrived into Siquijor Island in the late afternoon and caught a tricycle straight to San Juan, where I caught one of the best sunsets I have ever seen.

The calm, almost still, waters acted like a mirror as the sun melted into the horizon, dispelling rich colours, and the people working in the seaweed farm turned into dark silhouettes.

The following morning we hired out some motorcycles to explore the island. James, Chloe and Jody managed to get ones which were not too bad, but I ended up being lumped with one that I will henceforth refer to as, ‘Piece-of-Shit’.

After giving Piece-of-Shit a kick start – and being reassured by the loaner, that the ignition would start working once the battery had warmed up – we set off along the coastal road.

Our first stop was at San Isidro Labrador Church in Lazi. By the time we reached there I had already given Piece-of-Shit three kick starts and, when we had finished having a look around the charming nineteenth century relic of Spanish colonial times, I got back on to Piece-of-Shit and found that I could no longer get it started at all. A passing tricycle driver kindly tried to help but to no avail; he took a step back, shook his head, laughed, and said “it’s Chinese,” as a form of explanation.

He called up the owner for us, and we had to wait half an hour for him to arrive so he could fix Piece-of-Shit’s battery to get it running again. We then drove on to Cambugahay Waterfall.

Cambugahay Waterfall was simply lovely, and reminded me of Erawan in Thailand. It had four different tiers to swim in, and the waters were murky-blue. We got changed into our swimming gear and took a refreshing plunge into the lukewarm waters.

We then drove towards Salagdoong, and on our way there Piece-of-Shit killed its second battery. When I finally managed to kick-start it again the accelerator cable snapped. After much cursing and swearing, I handed Piece-of-Shit in to a repair shop and hopped onto the back of Jody’s bike, telling them we would pick it up in an hour.

After driving through the middle of Salagdoong Nature Reserve, we reached the beach. It has unfortunately been privatised by government-owned Hotel Apripino, who have built a resort around the seafront, but the amount they charged us to enter wasn’t too extortionate. The beach is still very nice and there is a little peninsular between the two coves, which I climbed and managed to snap a picture of James swimming in the turquoise waters below.

We picked up Piece-of-Shit again. By that point Piece-of-Shit had wasted so much of our time that we didn’t have much of the day left, so we were forced to drive through the rest of the island quickly, making frequent stops to kick start Piece-of-Shit again.

When we got back we discovered that the guesthouse we were staying at – Czar’s Place – had a live band playing; a weekly event that most of the village (and tourists) turn up to. The four of us decided that trying to sleep was pointless – it was simply too loud – so we just embraced it, and drank. When I had polished off enough beers to knock myself out, regardless of the noise, I went to bed.

The following day was quite lazy, but James, Chloe and myself did work up enough energy to go snorkelling in the afternoon, where we saw lots of lovely corals.

For more photos of Bohol and Siquijor, go to my Flickr account. One of the photos from this blog was donated to me by James, whose photography website can be found here.

To read the other parts of my time in the Visayas, click on the following links: Part 2 (Apo Island, Dumaguette & Boracay), Part 3 (Tablas & Romblon), Part 4 (Sibuyan Island)