#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Philippine Forum >  >  South Luzon & the Visayas

## WujouMao

Although i spent about 2 months up north, i have spent a far deal longer exploring down south, but i havent got the pictures to prove it. Also love to visit some of the tribes of Mindanno, but its just considered to dangerous. i like to keep my head attached to my body, thats all thats worries me. being shot at doesnt.
so anyway, i thought about taking the train down, but i took the bus instead. 

Cagsawa church

^i hear now that this church is complety covered over. i'll have to check it out sometime.
Got down to Matnog to catch the ferry over to Samar, but my guidebook didnt give me anything good to write about. i should make my mind up another time.

^Matnog beach. 


i was the star attraction for the evening. i guess they dont get many visitors this way. some even invited me to eat with them! can you expect the same treatement in England?


Malapascua island and tip of Cebu






local cockfighting

^happened so fast, and all was over.

this was killing my foot


Main beach landing

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## gjbkk

Thanks, nice photos, looks like a great place to explore

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## Johnny Longprong

You have certainly been around WM. Great shots indeed.

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## JoGeAr

Some great pics. That last shot in particular looks farkin idyllic.

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## WujouMao

> Some great pics. That last shot in particular looks farkin idyllic.


cheers guys.
some more photos from Malapascua Island. here i went snorkeling






messes with your eyes doesn't it?

brain coral




i then went island hopping..... as you do. 



jackfruit i think. thank god this didnt drop on Newton's head, or he'd be dead


fit as....




don't trust the hot showers, they may shock you like this one did. look in the ceiling, canny you believe it?


tricyles, and 4 people plus food shopping sits in the back. for a westerner, its like being a sardine. nightmare if you have long legs  :Smile: 


went to Bohol to see the chocolate hills


loved the bridge, locals didnt, lol




then met a man at the end of the bridge that likes to do something great with a coconut. click to play.


if i'm not allowed video's here, please feel free to delete

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## SEA Traveler

Excellent adventure travel shots Wujou!

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## WujouMao

went to Silay, Negros to see the sugar cane which is grown is this part of the phils. The sugar cane was brought over here by the french [i think], but that doesnt make the locals think any differant for the foreigners, who even asked me whether i was korean!!
sugar cane on lorries, as far as the eye can see



Err, yea right........





saw some beautiful churches while i was in the phils, not religious mind

made from coral, now you know where all the coral's gone

very gothic looking, one of my fav's

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## Loombucket

Cracking collection of photos there mate, the thread opener is the best that I have seen in a long while.

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## WujouMao

forgot where this was. think it was near [?] de oro

my Ex- girlfriends place in Mindanno. totel culture shock as it was only 1 week before i had left England                                            

^not used to having pigs slaughted at 2AM outside my bedroom window
Negros, Dumaguete. some local dance festival


Colourful fish


Sinulog 2007, Cebu                                                     


Santo Nino [Child Jesus]


selling crap








girls more intrested being on film than watching the festival

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## barbaro

WujouMao,

Great pics.

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## plorf

Can't give you any rep anymore, but always nice to read your travel reports.

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## stewieg

Thanks for the pics mate, awesome post, I was in Suragao del norte , Bohol Cebu and Leyte 10 years ago and it doesn't seem as long, time flies in. Your pics bring back some memories for me.

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## Bexar County Stud

Great pics, inspirational stuff. Looks like a place I gotta visit.

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## stefalive

wow,
 great pics
i wanna go!!

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## simbalama

good picture , can you post more

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## phuketbound

Looks like a great place to visit! I'm thinking of heading there at some point. Can you recommend some of the best places that you visited? Did you get to go scuba diving?

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## WujouMao

> Looks like a great place to visit! I'm thinking of heading there at some point. Can you recommend some of the best places that you visited? Did you get to go scuba diving?


sorry mate, i swim like a brick. as for recommentions, for a 1st timer leaving Manila or Cebu with cheap piss and its girlie dancing bars it will be pretty tough, but if you want beaches, there's Malapascua island off the tip of Cebu. there's Boracay which is very very popular with tourists [never went there, but maybe your thang]. you could try Palawan for utter beauty

with over 2000 islands, there's a shyte lot to see

opps... forgot to say, may sure you plan a trip with a popular festival in a particular area. say for instance, whether you are a church goer or not, going to see the Filipino's celebrate Easter would be a highligh of any trip. i have never been myself, but i have heard of people who have and its not for the sqeamish

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## bestvue

Great Pics
Thanks for sharing.

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## WujouMao

i spent about 50 days in the philippines from july to August this year. i started from Davao, and moved up to Lake Sebu which is in S.Cotabato. had a walk around the countryside and even helped the locals carry the 'grass'






Lake Sebu is a large lake with about dozen islands and tons of fish farms. too be honest i got rather bored of eating the same brand of fish everyday. thankfully the place i stayed in gave me food poisoning which was enough to make me leave and never come back










Lake Sebu and the surrounding area has lots of T'boli tribe people. some of them work in some of the restaurants around the lake






had a walk around the lake, walked along a track, past a Muslim village and got stopped by some paranoid unpleasant characters who asked me where i was going and told me to turn back. thankfully i found some pleasant people in the next village down. they even gave me some coconut rice wine. evil stuff. avoid like the plague






a few days later i went to Marbel for the T'nalak festival. but 1st, i thought i should take a gander at a bikini contest


in the Morning, it was festival time. another street parade like the Singulog with is held in Cebu









^ v
some of the girls were minging. plastered to much crap on their face makee then look rough as hell. i prefer natural look anyday

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## Loombucket

Great pictures mate, thanks for sharing.

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## WujouMao

after that i chipped to Bohol to see the small critters again in their natural habitat and not the illegal ones i saw before




and saw the Buku King again cos the girl i was with never seen him before. shame about the poxy pink girl's hat he wore


went to Palo in Leyte to see McArther landing site. 


and then went to the Market in Tacloban to cause a stir with the people selling seafood.














no thanks mate. not buying. but i'd take your picture instead


seeweed? tasty i guess...not!!


this was a tuna. and i always thought a tuna was small, like a foot long


some shy girls took a second chance to get their photo taken...with a man holding a fish






caught a bus from Tacloban to Calbayog in Samar. took a few snaps of a weird motocycle with a customised wooden roof. seen them many times, but hard to take a picture from a moving bus when the roads are bumpy as shit, and this was the closest i got


...and the odd accident


and some nice simple houses along the way. i must say, if anyone is in the area, there are some great photo's to be had from Calbayog to somewhere near san Isidro


caught a ferry from samar to Matnog, South Luzon and witnessed another festival






then i went to Naga to find a 'skate' track for my last bit of sightseeing in Philippines before home. 

just like the Cambodian bamboo train, the Philippines has their own version called Skates. i went from Naga to Pili for a cheap price, rather than the inflated price  for a 20 min ride.


somewhat smaller than the Cambodian version, but at least these have handles


or if you're strong enough, you can carry your own


then as i was waiting for the rain to stop, i saw a square pool table, that rotates instead of walking around the table

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## ferretface

a very enjoyable thread,any more.

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## WujouMao

> a very enjoyable thread,any more.


weather was shit in july/august time. so no blue sky's. so basically, no mate.

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## smeden

again  i enjoyd a lot always look your treads always god pics and  the storie to come whith it       :Smile:  :Smile:  :Smile:  :Smile:

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## WujouMao

> a very enjoyable thread,any more.



too be honest, i have 100's of pictures. i only chose the best ones. i wouldn't wanna bore you with other ones. for instance, for the 2007 Sinulog festival in 2007, i have over 600 photos of that, and thats for 1 day.

if you really want to see more, i'd pop them up. let me know

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## Agent_Smith

Excellent, Wujou.  I'm heading there in April and trying put together some sort of itinerary.  Would like to see volcanoes and beaches but my list is expanding...

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## WujouMao

> Excellent, Wujou.  I'm heading there in April and trying put together some sort of itinerary.  Would like to see volcanoes and beaches but my list is expanding...


i would assume April would be the hottest season of the year, like Cambodia and Thailand where its normally about 40 degrees. anyway, there's tones to see and tones of volcano's too see. better to go when its a clear blue sky compared to when i went which was the start of monsoon season. nothing worse when you have a ton of cloud spoiling one of the best looking volcano's in Philippines

a word of warning, you might find the philiphine food rather grim so best stick to what you have back home. i gave up trying to swallow a battered chicken wing and rice for breakfast without any veg

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## Agent_Smith

Thanks for that, are you saying April is too cloudy/rainy?  As for the food, about all I can stomach there is chicken adobo as everything else is way too greasy (lumpya, pancit).  Adobo and white rice will have to sustain me...

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## WujouMao

no mate. i went in july/august time last year, and i had a cloudy view at Mt.Mayon. when i got to Manila, i saw 2 typhoons in a week. best to stick to any period before june.

yea, i can stomach chicken adobo. sometimes i would try my luck in a mall thats serving cooked food. the Filipinos try and tell you that chop suey is veg. its more of rabbit food in water, so the poor lass at the checkout counter was confused cos i had on my plate something which they didnt sever. 

if you wanted beef and veg, its called chop suey. the other veg i saw was real veg, but that was only served with chicken. lol, so i messed it up completely for them

other than that, i would head for the muslim restaurants area's around the Mosques cos one thing about Islamic food, its spicy and they dont serve pork, so you dont get none of that fatty shit you do with other philippine gunk

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## callippo

Filipino food doesn't really deserve the appalling press it can sometimes get, it's just finding a good inexpensive pinoy resto isn't always that easy compared to bog-standard barbecues and turo-turo (point-point) caranderias which are everywhere. But having said that, I've had a proper spread of something like bird's nest soup, chopsuey, beef caldereta, chicken sweet and sour, shanghai rice, all the dishes spread over the table, plus beers coming in at 250 pesos for two in decent but cheap pinoy restos plenty of times. Not the dizzy culinary heights of Thailand for sure, but it doesn't have to be always total dross.

Unlike Thailand Philippines is somewhere where it is quite an advantage to go self-catering. Get a Filipina to cook for you, a lot of the food you're used to in Thailand is sold in Philippines, it's just they don't eat as much of it as the Thais. So it's easy enough to do your chicken in coconut milk with chillies and lemongrass if that's what you want. Just because Filipinos don't especially like spicy food doesn't mean that its not available. Food in the Bicol region is pretty much like Thai.

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## Bangyai

> Err, yea right........


Excellent thread, brings back loads of memories. Did a similar trip 25 years ago. I used to get a laugh from  signs like these. A German friend and myself checked into a ' hotel ' in Bagio once that had a sign above the door... ' Your home away from home ' . It was an unbelieveable shithole ....even the bed bugs thought it was a rip off. As my German friend said " If my home was like this I would be _away from home_ the rest of my life !! "

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## Bangyai

> Filipino food doesn't really deserve the appalling press it can sometimes get, .


True, but I can remember  being directed to ' _food centres '_ several times by helpful natives, only to find on arrival , 40 or so stalls all selling exactly the same thing ....hot dogs ??? Pretty rum ones at that.

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## callippo

I agree it can be a bit grim and same-same, but there are some good and really cheap restos as well, just not enough of them. What's noticeable about Philippines is how few Chinese restos there are, by which I mean restos for Chinese Filipinos, not foreigners. Even though the number of ethnic Chinese in Philippines is much lower than elsewhere in SEA, I'm not sure why this is so. You can usually find decent Chinese food easily enough in Thailand - some places more than others, of course - and Malaysia too obviously, but Philippines is pretty much a chopstick free zone.

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## WujouMao

> Filipino food doesn't really deserve the appalling press it can sometimes get, it's just finding a good inexpensive pinoy resto isn't always that easy compared to bog-standard barbecues and turo-turo (point-point) caranderias which are everywhere. But having said that, I've had a proper spread of something like bird's nest soup, chopsuey, beef caldereta, chicken sweet and sour, shanghai rice, all the dishes spread over the table, plus beers coming in at 250 pesos for two in decent but cheap pinoy restos plenty of times. Not the dizzy culinary heights of Thailand for sure, but it doesn't have to be always total dross.
> 
> Unlike Thailand Philippines is somewhere where it is quite an advantage to go self-catering. Get a Filipina to cook for you, a lot of the food you're used to in Thailand is sold in Philippines, it's just they don't eat as much of it as the Thais. So it's easy enough to do your chicken in coconut milk with chillies and lemongrass if that's what you want. Just because Filipinos don't especially like spicy food doesn't mean that its not available. Food in the Bicol region is pretty much like Thai.


i never once saw a rented room with a DIY kitchen, unless i was in Sabang. there yes, i cooked for myself cos it was alot cheaper than the filipino or western food that they were serving in town. 

as for Bicol, yea, i tried the bicol express and ate in Wayway restaurant in Legaspi

^you could try at chow kings, but i found the food much like airport food. IE, rather bland

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## phomsanuk

I'd move there if they would learn how to cook, worst food in SEAsia, 700 islands and thier favorite food is pork? Shows to!
Why do "Hill Tribe" people look the same in different countries?

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## WujouMao

its 7000 islands. i dont mind pork. bacon is great stuff, but they love more fat than actual meat. you try buying bacon with more meat than fat and you get the worse brand of streaky bacon ever

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## callippo

_i never once saw a rented room with a DIY kitchen._

they're not all that hard to find if you look for them. Much easier to find self-catering than Thailand, in fact.  We had self catering on Bantayan, Camotes, Camiguin, even Alona beach, and several other places. If you have a Filipina doing the cooking, the food is much better than in nearly all restos and only a tiny fraction of the price. Just about all resorts that get a lot of Filipino tourists as opposed to foreigners have barbecue facilities too. What you are looking for if you want self-catering is 'apartelles'. Even in Manila I was staying at an apartelle with self-catering, fridge, etc for only 1000. You can also buy small electrical cookers with two rings for only a few hundred pesos from department stores and they're not so heavy to lug around.

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## Agent_Smith

^True.  I stayed in an arpartello (I didn't know the name then) while in Manila for a week back in the early 90's.  It was a like a studio apartment with a small kitchen.   Beautiful women but Manila really is the dirtiest city I've ever visited.  The canals are just filthy and even the botanical park that was donated by the Japanese was a wasteland of dead trees and plants.

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## WujouMao

> _i never once saw a rented room with a DIY kitchen._
> 
> they're not all that hard to find if you look for them. Much easier to find self-catering than Thailand, in fact.  We had self catering on Bantayan, Camotes, Camiguin, even Alona beach, and several other places. If you have a Filipina doing the cooking, the food is much better than in nearly all restos and only a tiny fraction of the price. Just about all resorts that get a lot of Filipino tourists as opposed to foreigners have barbecue facilities too. What you are looking for if you want self-catering is 'apartelles'. Even in Manila I was staying at an apartelle with self-catering, fridge, etc for only 1000. You can also buy small electrical cookers with two rings for only a few hundred pesos from department stores and they're not so heavy to lug around.


wow, 1000 pesos with a kitchen and fridge. i paid 600 pesos for a dingy flypit mattress. i never stayed in Makati as i would of thought that was more mahal. the furthest i stayed in manila was pasig, but nowt there.

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## callippo

the place is in Makati, actually - it's even called Makati Apartelle. They have a website. A bit basic, but OK. Makati needn't be all that expensive.

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## WujouMao

i just looked at the website. only 985 pesos. you know just looking at the few options in my guide book was enough to put me off. 

budget
Robelle House - 1300-1500 pesos
Great Eatern Hotel - 1500 pesos
Pensionne Virgina - 1500-2050

and this is in Lonely planet. one look at that and i didnt bother to read any further

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## callippo

there's Durban Street Inn, right next door to City Garden Hotel, in Makati too that's only 900, it's always full though and no website. 

yes there's the odd good deal, but it is true accommodation in the Philippines more expensive compared to Thailand, even though it's now much the poorer country. Not just Manila vs. Bangkok, but provincial towns against provincial towns. In Chiang Mai, I can get a decent room - an OK room - with fridge, cable and aircon for 350 baht. In Cebu I'd have to pay at least 600 pesos and probably more like 800 for a room that probably wouldn't even have a fridge in it. Filipino hoteliers have this belief that a fridge is some sort of 'luxury item' rather than a basic amenity.

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## WujouMao

yea, cos they still wash with cold water and drink warm bottled water. anything like a fridge would just be a drain on their 'lecky bill. i havent seen much in a way of a TV, in some of the places i stayed in Philippines.

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## callippo

washing with cold water I have no problem with at all, in fact I couldn't care less if the water pressure in the shower is shite. I'm ready to just use a bucket and cold-water with no complaints at all.

tv's, usually no problems finding a room with one, trouble is finding a non-aircon fan room with one. Sometimes they can be tight with the channels and only for for the 650 peso monthly deal rather than the 995 one where you can get BBC and so on.

they always mention the price of the leccy when they're trying to explain not providing fridges, or else charge a high price (up to 200 pesos sometimes) for one, but the fact is that even though leccy in the Phils IS very expensive, it still doesn't cost hardly anything to run a fridge for 24 hours. My friend's family in Leyte have a fridge they use pretty much all the time, even with the tv and the lights as well, their monthly bill is only about 300 pesos. To run a fridge for 24 hours must cost quite a bit less than 10 pesos.

it's just the mindset. They haven't got past this notion that a fridge is a 'luxury'. It's like they're still living in the 1970s when everyone else is in the 21st century sometimes. The tourist industry in the Philippines is just pathetic.

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## zachary

gorgeous pics, i love flipland  :Smile:

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## WujouMao

who wants to see more photos of the Visayas?  i found some more so hopefully you'll be drooling

just some normal ones for starters. namely, a small bus for extra small people. one seat sits 3 people, or, 1 if you're 6 foot tall with long legs










Maya Port


Malapascua Island








Ultra sexy Island girl




Logon town church






Logon town. there isnt any cars here. well, not to my knowledge. things might of changed since 2007




simple hut


view from the lighthouse and highest point of the Island


Mangrove Bay




spotted this on Carnassa Island. its a private Island. still dont know what it was. it aint a home


lagoon of Carnassa Island


Heritage monument, Ceby city


old house near Heritage Monument


i think this implies "come on in" as the shop in question sells lots of Bastos t-shirts, yet the picture is of a man. i would hate to enter 'that'. now if it was a woman bending over, yea, i'll enter for sure

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## WujouMao

i went over to Negos from Cebu and basically travelled the island. some photographs from a moving bus




1st stop was Silay, which is about 13 clicks from Bacolod. the area was one of the 1st areas which sugar cane was planted by a French resident in 1850's. The train as you see here carted the sugar cane from the fields to the processing plant. The train no longer runs, but the odd railway track is here and there.






The golden age of Silay came in the 1880 -1930, when numerous ancestral homes here built by the rich tycoons of the time




















old fashioned motorbike.....i guess








some of the other homes falling into decay, much like the old French homes from Savanaket, Laos. 




Silay's old church ruin


went to a bar and meet a cherry girl


how the hell can anyone serve food in this shitty kitchen. 




Silay's Church








went to a National park somewhere in Negros




some Japanese burial park


This poor bugger certainly either had to be put down or nurtured back to health


From Negros, i crossed over to Panay, Iloilo city


the jeepney's here are more modern in rather than the jeep style they normally are

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## WujouMao

A glow in the dark Fire Engine


Completed in 1765. Roman Church, Guimbal. Panay




went to another bar. more of a hostess bar really with some dancers....


till i found out they were ladyboys and i quickly drank my beer and left


some general photos of crap really.










would hate to have my part 1 and come here and do scaffolding. what i learnt would be a waste of time


can't remember this Island. but i know it was littered with seashells. literally everywhere.






saw another beast of a spider










only picture i have of Romblom pier. SD card was stolen


this is a hoot. i'm sure you guys have read more funny things which are correctly posted in the toilets of your favourite drinking hole

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## ossierob

Wonderful shots mate....I have been to the Phils many times but not as extensively as you have....sigh!

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## splitpin100

Wonderful pics and travel log ,thank you

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## ossierob

Thanks mate....they are a fantastic set of pics....really good

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