This plane took me to The Philippines...
No just joking! It's quite a long flight to the Phillies. It's
almost on the other side of the globe.
First i spent one or two days in Manila. But i don't think the city is
photoworthy.
Not even the old core of the city. The average Dutch city is ten times more
interesting.
Manila does have some nice nightlife though.
I had the weird experience of being surrounded by at least 10 chicks on the
dancefloor.
They find it interesting to dance with a white guy!
One other thing happened. And it wouldn't be the last time it would happen.
Someone told me i am beautiful! This time by a fat guy who just came out of the
shower when i was washing my face.
Completely unable to respond to such things, i walked away, afraid that a "oops
I dropped the soap"-scenario would occur.
So after two days I went to the north where i wanted to climb the volcano Mount
Pinatubo.
However, it turned out to be very expensive. So i decided to do a microlight
flight instead with the plane above!
It was quite nice! I got a true drill-instruction from an American pilot before
we took to the air.
Maybe I should talk first, then show the pictures...
Anyway, I got dropped at a hotel after the microlight flight and took a swim in the
swimmingpool.
A lovely Philippine family joined me.
They all wanted to learn how to swim! So i had a lovely time teaching them and
playing around.
Later I heard that on of the girls, the one in pink, had said my name in her
sleep! How cute!
The next stop would be further to the north, in Banaue.
This little city is situated in the mountains, surrounded by lovely
riceterraces.
I made a trek into the mountains. The tricycledriver offered
to be my guide.
We went to a village that can only be reached by foot.
So many different shades of green...
The easy part about building this house, is building the toilet
Stepstones...
In this little village one has to walk on the edges of
riceterraces to get to ones neighbour.
A little scary at times, but it is truly lovely walking!
I stayed at a lovely 'hotel' aswell: Jim's place. It is placed on top of the
riceterraces, overlooking them.
So i woke up with a terrific panorama.
Jim aswell as his two daughters were very kind. They treated me to homegrown
specialities like sweet potato.
His daughter showed me a nearby waterfall aswell
Loudlaughing friendly farmergirl! We joked around alot about getting married!
This place was truly lovely! I hope to return one day!
Next i took a domestic flight to Bohol: A popular tourist
destination. But not so many tourists where present.
The reason is that i came at the end of the tourist season.
The place is famous for several things. Except diving, this little creature (Tarsier):
And a nice floating restaurant...
And at last the famous chocolate hills: weird grassy hills sticking up everywhere.
Next stop would ben Boracay: The main tourist destination.
Mostly a lot of tourists means it sucks, but Boracay has developped into a lovely place!
The beachboulevard is very nice. As are the restaurants and the nightlife.
In Boracay i met a very cute girl named Mary.
We were together for about two weeks, untill the end of my holiday.
We made two little trips from Boracay.
First to a cold spring where a little river emerged from out of the
mountainwall.
They had built a swimmingpool around it. I don't think we saw a single tourist
the whole time!
This mean machine stood parked in front of the hotel! Ofcourse I had to look like an Hell's Angel on it!
The area also boosted a cave! Nothing spectacular, but it was nice because little childeren lit us the way with selfmade fackels.
Cavepaintings from the early man...
We also had a lovely swim in a natural stream
The hotel was special aswell! It was possible to live like Tarzan in a treehut!
The swimmingpool was overgrown with weed and had become a fishpond!
The second trip we made, was to the islandgroup called
Romblon.
Our goal was the enchanted hidden pool. We didn't know what on earth to expect
from this...
It required some rough travelling.
On the way to the enchanted hidden pool, we stopped at a good snorkellingspot. It had swarms of small fish and reasonable corals.
The last part of the trip was on a lovely banca (small boat).
Weird rockformations, small whitesand coves and crystalclear water made this
trip lovely!
Imagine if you would live here:
The enchanted hidden pool is like a saltwater lake, cut off
from the ocean.
This has turned the water quite murky. Treeroots snaked around weird
rockformations and disappeared into the water.
It's the kind of place where you expect an alligator to snap your leg off any
moment! I had a snorkel through it: Creepy!
After this murky snorkel, we went for a fresh snorkel in the crystalclear ocean water!
That's all folks!