Magic in Surigao

Everything about my 7 days spent in Surigao Island, Philippines can only be fairly described as magical. This stop is the reason I came traveling to Asia.

I am very fortunate that the owner of the ecolodge I was staying at in my previous location, Ros, was heading to Surigao the same day as I. She was very kind and invited me to come stay at her friend’s cottage where a group of her friends were conducting an art workshop with the local children.

Her friend, Lee, has a dream cottage located on the beach of a very quiet, curious fishing village on Surigao Island. His house is perfectly located beside a white sand swimming pool-like bay, with mangrove forests and hidden beaches within short kayaking distance.

I was pampered with the warmest Philippino hospitality, eating freshly caught seafood at every meal: crab, fish, prawns, shrimp, and clams.

Lee’s house is very near to quiet, secluded surf spots that most of the foreign tourists don’t know about. I spent 2 perfect days warming up with some surf at a spot within walking distance of his house. I can’t imagine a more scenic place to surf, with emerald green water, white-sand beaches, and palm trees lining the shore.

On the third day the others were finished their art workshops, and so we all took a Bangka boat ride out to one Lee's friend’s favourite secret surf spots. On the way there, we were delighted to see flying fish skipping across the water within a few metres of our boat.

While we were surfing, a perfect rainbow formed above our heads. According to the people on shore, there were actually two rainbows surrounding us and a day moon in the middle. Magic.

At night we had fun: One evening we took a boat ride out to a tiny deserted sand island for a bonfire, another we partied at the local jungle disco, and for the final night’s send-off we enjoyed some classic Philippino karaoke.

After 4 days in heaven I decided to spend a day or two with the foreign travelers at the big surf break called Cloud 9. The surfers were unhappy because the waves weren’t going, but it was perfect for me because there were plenty of smaller waves to be had that are more suitable for my ability level.

I finished the week off with a day trip to a nearby island were they have some caves that can only be reached by swimming.

The caves were amazing, and my favourite cave was one where we swam in through the bottom, climbed up a natural ‘staircase’ to a cliff on the outside, and then dove from the cliff back into the water.

On our way back I was treated to the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. The picture at the very top shows the view pretty accurately. I don’t have any photo editing software on my computer, so the all the photos I put on my blog have the actual lighting and colours.

Currently I am typing this post on a sleeper ferry that is heading to a big city called Cebu. Cebu is north of my current location, surrounded by a group of islands that should have many fun activities and beautiful sights.

I think I just had my final send-off from Surigao: While I was on deck admiring the full moon and silhouette of a volcanic island, I heard splashing. Below me were two dolphins jumping along beside the ferry. Wow.

Volcano Island

After the fun in Davao City, I spent a day and a half bussing across the middle of Mindanao, to my destination of Camiguin Island.

Camiguin Island is an active volcanic island that looks like something out of Lost. It’s beautifully covered in thick jungle and surrounded by a deep blue-coloured sea.

When I arrived on the island I learned about all the activities there are to do, and realized I was going to spend more time here than I had previously thought.

Unfortunately I started to freak out when I realized my debit card doesn’t work on the island’s banks. The people at my ecolodge where I’m staying, Enigmata are absolutely amazing, and have agreed to let me pay them via paypal on the internet later. Thanks guys!

On my first day here I hiked up a small volcano for a pleasant view, and then visited a 75 metre waterfall that was reached after a long, steep ascent into the jungle.

Both yesterday and today were spent snorkeling at a few of the island’s excellent spots.

Yesterday I went with the ecolodge people to a small white-sand island not too far away from Camiguin Island. We took bangkas (boats) there, which was an adventure in itself. I spent a few glorious hours snorkeling along a long ledge that is covered in coral. I saw lots of big fish, and one really big school of big fish!

Today I went to a second spot that was highly recommended because of the giant clams.

The snorkeling with giant clams was equally amazing because the coral was even more varied and sea life was in plenty of abundance.

I’m appalled at how decimated the natural environment is in Southeast Asia, both on land and in the water. However, it is really exciting to see the progress that has been made in small projects such as the giant clam preservation/rehabilitation area that I snorkeled at today. The locals are also very excited about the project, and hope to reintroduce giant clams to the seas around the rest of the island. I hope they succeed!

Camiguin Island has plenty of my beloved jeepneys chugging around the narrow roads. I am still thrilled to ride in the back of these hilariously decorated vehicles.

Tomorrow I am moving on to Surigao, a highly rated surf spot that is an 8 hour bus journey away. If I like it, I may stay there a while. Blog post to follow.

Phili phili pinnes

I finished off Thailand with a couple of great days (nights really) in Koh Phi Phi. The partying in Thailand has been amazing, but now I am ready to get back off the beaten path.

Yesterday I flew into a city called Davao, on the Philippines’ large southern island of Mindanao. Davao’s not in my travel guide book, so I had no clue what to expect when I arrived here, other that I doubted I would see very many white people.

My only expectation has held strong so far. Other than a guy from Uruguay at the wakeboard park and a couple of white guys in my hotel, this place is pure locals.

I was shocked to see a very helpful tourist information booth when I stepped out of the airplane (I have yet to see one of these in any other Asian country).  They told me about some great things to do here, which I have done.

This morning I went to the Philippines Eagle Centre, where I saw a collection of live large, VERY large, birds of prey. The Philippines Eagle (pictured above) is the highlight, as it is the Philippines’ national bird. It is also one of the largest eagles in the world, as I would estimate about the size of a medium dog. It eats things like snakes, flying lemurs, and small monkeys!

This asian trip has taught me that it is always best to travel by local transport rather than taxis. Here in Davao it is particularly fun because you get to roll around in the back of trucks called Jeepneys. The jeepneys are all painted up in unique colours and designs like hot wheels cars.

After the eagle center I still had most of the afternoon free so I took a jeepney to the Deca Wakeboard Park.

Rather than using boats, you get towed around on your wakeboard by cables that hang in the air. They have created a man-made ‘lake’ that is really a loop like a doughnut.

It is so much fun! It beats regular wakeboarding by a mile: the water is always smooth as glass, the cables always go the same speed so you never have to worry if you’re going too fast or slow, you don’t have to wait your turn, and best of all – it doesn’t hurt when you fall!

It took me the first hour just to get used to the cables and the differences in tension, but by the second hour I was having the time of my life.

The photos unfortunately aren’t of me, but I did hit the jump quite a few times, and even got some boardslides going on the funboxes.

For dinner I was craving pizza, but then I spotted Philippino bbq and decided to have an appetizer. 

I had a few skewers, which were delicious, and then I saw the people at the table next to me sit down with about a dozen skewers. Realizing pizza would never be this good, I followed suit and chewed through as many skewers as I could.

I managed to finish 10 skewers, but I bet I could have eaten 20 if I didn’t get rice. The bill: $1.25. If you count the mango juice cans, which I brought to the meal, the total bill was about $2.50. I love the Philippines!

Here’s a short clip I made of one of the guys cruising around the wakeboard park. The quality isn’t great, but my camera’s built for photos not video.

Rock Jocks

On the last post I left off somewhere between Koh Tao and Krabi.

To finish my previous thoughts on Koh Tao, I had a good scuba dive there as well as some world-class snorkeling. The snorkeling took place on a coral reef called ‘Japanese Gardens’. The coral is huge and brain-shaped, and I have never seen such large quantities of fish, all different varieties and colours.

I have now been living on the beaches nearby to Krabi, Thailand for 4 days. There are two beautiful beaches that are very built up for tourists (ie. Large hotels, expensive restaurants, bars, McDonald’s), and then one quiet one nestled right in the middle. I’m in the quiet one, called Ton Sai.

As people here tell me, Ton Sai is rated one of the top 5 rock climbing sites in the world. There are a lot of climbers just living here for weeks or months at a time, climbing every day.

I have done very little rock climbing previously, but I wouldn't miss a chance to participate in the action. I joined a beginner course where we spent a morning testing our mettle on the cliffs.

I am amazed at how much concentration and mental power is required to rock climb. After the course I was both physically and mentally drained, and spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach. I really, really enjoyed myself, however, and am looking forward to my next opportunity to do more climbing.

The other activity that’s popular on Ton Sai is Ocean Kayaking, due to the beautiful cliffs surrounding the beaches. I took the kayak out today and enjoyed the sun, warm water, scenery, and clean sandy beaches.

There are a couple of caves in the sides of the cliffs that you can kayak right through!

I had a great rock climbing experience, largely due to the excellent people at Basecamp Tonsai (whom I took my course with). These guys literally wrote the rock climbing guide book for the area!

Languages

This isn’t a typical blog post of mine where I talk about the latest things I’ve done or places I’ve been. But its still travel related and I want to write about it; and its my blog so I can write whatever I want!

When I went to South America with James and Jordan last year I learned Spanish. I started learning a couple months before we left, and I continued learning the whole 4 months we were there. I even continued learning it for about a month after we arrived home because I really wanted to finish the course. I used Pimsleur.

I learned Spanish because I wanted to maximize my enjoyment of the trip to South America, and any future trips I make to South or Central America. It worked – I had more fun because of it.

But only lately (yesterday, really) did I realize how good a decision it was to learn Spanish. After spending 4 days on Koh Tao diving, snorkeling, and recovering from the full moon party, I took the ferry back to the mainland because I wanted to go to a place called Krabi. On the ferry I met a guy named Dani from Valencia, Spain.

Dani really wants to learn English, and I really want to learn Spanish. And because of that it turned a boring 2 hour ferry ride into a great conversation that doubled as an English lesson for him and a Spanish lesson for me.

If I didn’t already have a solid basic understanding of Spanish, I wouldn’t have been able to talk to Dani at all.

Yesterday evening I arrived in Krabi at a beach called Ao Nang. When I went out I met three people from Basque. I know they have their own language, but I started speaking in Spanish and they followed suit.  Although I didn’t speak any English with them, I got the impression that their knowledge of English is very minimal.

I think they were thrilled to be able to meet someone without having to go through the challenging (and for educated westerners) embarrassing process of having to struggle through a basic conversation in English. 

Without Spanish I wouldn’t have been able to meet these people from the very unique and interesting Basque region.

Now that I have seen how richly rewarding it is to learn a second language, it got me thinking about which languages would be the most useful and fun for me to learn.

From 4 months in South America, and now nearly 3 months in Southeast Asia, I’ve found that young people in pretty much every 1^st world nation learn English to the point that they can speak it fluently. The only major exceptions I can think of off the top of my head are Spain, France, and Japan. And for that reason, I plan on learning those 3 languages in that order during my life: Spanish, French, and Japanese.

On a completely off-topic note I overheard a guy from Quebec talking to some foreigners about the Quebec student strikes that happened recently. He told them that the Quebec government is very corrupt and wants to double tuition.

I couldn’t help myself; I asked the Quebec guy how much he paid in tuition last year. He said $1,200. 

$1,200!!!! For the entire year! I paid $8,000 a year in Nova Scotia, and I’ve never heard of a University in Canada charging less than $6,000 for the year.

It seems so weird to me. Do people in Quebec know that their tuition is insanely cheap, even when doubled to a measly $2,400? I’m not trying to stir up angry emotions or anything, but it just boggles my mind.

Today I’m going to a beach that is supposed to have really good rock climbing. Hopefully a post full of colourful pictures and stories will follow.

Post Full Moon

The full moon party was so good that the event requires some after-discussion.

The guy that I said was the craziest Irish guy of them all actually has a friend that is equally as crazy.

His name is Christian McGettigan, and he lives everyday of his life the way that every man dreams of living. The guy deep throats beer bottles. He parties non-stop around the clock. He has the best social skills of any person I have ever met.

I was lucky enough to spend an hour or two partying with him. Not on full moon night, but the night after. I couldn’t come close to keeping up, but it was just great watching him go.

He told me he’s famous, and I figured it was probably for something crazy he did that someone made a youtube video of. I was wrong. His family owns a butcher shop in Ireland called McGettigan Butchers that has won, as he tells me, a very competitive annual Irish sausage competition an incredible 6 times. The next best butcher shop has only won twice. This year they entered a Europe-wide competition and won. He tells me that German sausages are "shit" compared to the McGettigan sausages. This is a newspaper article on them http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0508/1224315744613.html.

I was trying to use someone's iphone to add Christian on facebook, but he was having trouble using it. I told him I don’t have a smart phone and so I couldn’t help him. He goes “you don’t have a smartphone? What do you have?”. I just said a regular phone. So I asked him if he has a smart phone. He goes “Oh no, I don’t have any phone atall”. Awesome.

Christian says that full moon party for him is really tame. “Like Monday morning back in Ireland”.

The full moon party was full of guys and girls as cool as this guy. Everywhere. It was a real Craics!

The October full moon party is the slowest one of the year. I’d estimate there were maybe 5,000 to 7,000 people. Other people claim they heard 15,000. The best one of the year is in December where the number hits 30,000. It would be really fun to do that one some day.

I was inspired by Kim Spikybombshell to start doing a quick review of places I stay or places I eat when I have a really good experience somewhere. I don’t think most of the people reading this will be too interested in them, but I thought it would be a nice thing to do as a way of saying thank you to the chance that it helps them gain a little bit of exposure.

The place I stayed in Koh Phangan is called Suncliff Resorts. I wouldn’t stay anywhere else. I paid 300 baht a night, which is about $10 and I had my own room and own bathroom. Pretty basic, but it had a mosquito net and the people there are happy to clean your room on request. Besides being the best value rooms, they have the best pool in town (has an unreal view) that is free to use, has fast free wifi, and the breakfast at the pool is extremely cheap and tasty. They serve brown toast and oatmeal which I love. Most people in the big dorm room hostels are paying around 300 baht a night.

You don’t really need to book ahead, because you need to show up at least 3 days before full moon for all the awesome pre-parties, and when I arrived 3 days ahead all the hostels were empty. That being said, I would email them if you’re coming for the huge December party. Rsvn.suncliff@hotmail or suncliff.resort@gmail.com. Prices will be higher for December and you’ll probably have to book for a minimum number of days.

Also, I ate lunch and dinner at the same little restaurant for my entire stay because Donald says it’s the best food in town and the prices are the cheapest. It’s always full of people and service is super speedy. The name of it is My Friend Restaurant.

Excited for Koh Tao!